Agent of the Arbitrators: Renegade
by scarred by a grizzly
Summary: Sequel to Agent of the Arbitrators, Warrior of the Queen. Branded as a bad blood for a crime he didn't commit Miguel is forced to flee back to earth in order to seek out the mysterious bad blood leader that framed him. Read and Review/ not a stand-alone
1. An old saying

**Hello again! I am back for better or for worse with this short teaser to set the tone for the upcoming story. this chapter is done from the first person but this will be the only chapter to do so. See the last chapter of warrior of the Queen for a full synopsis.**

Prologue

An Old Saying

There is an old proverb among the Yautja that only the oldest and wisest of them seem to remember. "The image of a perfect moral society is the biggest hypocrisy, for beneath the polished armor and skulls lay the unrest and anger of the forgotten and the allegedly inferior. At least that is how the ancients told it.

Ironic that it should have so much to do with me and why I live among the Yautja.

I am known to the Yautja as a human, and a hunter but none of them really knew my true purpose among them.

Originally recruited by an arbitrator named Gro'Kesh; I have since fought a war that many Yautja are quick to judge but so few actually understand, A war that has no known beginning and seemingly no end, a war on the society's inner demons.

My job was never easy for anyone and being human made it that much harder.

I understand why many of the Yautja seemed to despise me for being a human who was highly honored among the ancients and they didn't even know why.

However I really couldn't understand why the humans who had been raised among the Yautja as hunters and eta despised me for having pride in the fact that I was human.

Actually when I thought about it I knew why, the Yautja had always seem to deem humans as having no honor for using what they saw as underhanded tactics to fight and defeat Yautja hunters and those opinions had always rubbed off on the humans raised among them. Maybe that was why it was so easy for them to turn on me.

To me it always seemed slightly unfair. What was so wrong about evening the playing field? After all it didn't take a genius to figure out that the Yautja were stronger and faster so why was it dishonorable not to play them at their own game? But I digress.

My name is Miguel; better know to the Yautja as Young Fury and my story is one that will probably never be remembered as it is not even supposed to exist.

I am an agent of the arbitrators, a human chosen to help combat and purge the Yautja criminal element known as the bad bloods.

I do my job and do it well, However as any police officer knows, you can never truly purge the inner demons, every time one dies a thousand more wait to take its place.


	2. Another Dead Lead

**I'm finally back after a long absence! sorry about that, I'm now back and in college. Before reading this chapter I would highly recommend reading the previous two stories first if you haven't already as they prominently factor into this story. Anyway please enjoy as it is long overdue. **

Another Dead Lead

The sun was setting on the Yautja home world and it seemed completely serene to all who walked its streets and admired its statues, however what none could see was the life and death struggle happening in its own dark and dank back alleys.

The old Yautja knelt grunting in pain as his combi-staff spun away.

His stomach had been cut and he was bleeding profusely. However the shock of seeing his own blood had been nothing compared to seeing the skill of his opponent.

"I am an elder, how could I possibly fall to the likes of you!" he growled as the caped and hooded bad blood began to move slowly towards him, a ritual knife gleamed cruelly in its right hand.

"Because you underestimated me and what I am capable of, soon I will bring all of you to your knees" the caped figure growled in response as it began to bear down on the kneeling figure of the elder.

"You think any honorable Yautja would ever follow the words of a bad blood!" the elder spat as he continued to clutch his bleeding stomach.

"By the time I am finished the Yautja will be so deep in conflict and intrigue that they will not know who they can trust" the caped figure growled as it raised the knife for a killing blow.

As the knife came up a gust of wind blew the cape and hood off the elder's assailant causing him to gasp in a shock.

"You're…!" he began only to be drowned out by an angry roar from his assailant. The knife jetted downward plunging squarely into his chest; he fell, and lay dying in the small stone alley.

As the attacker watched the last moments of life flow out of its prey's body a massive Yautja appeared from the shadows.

"You could have been a little more discreet after all you are taking an awful risk by doing this yourself"

"Yes but then what would be the fun in that" the figure responded as it dawned its hood and cloak again.

"Why are you going to all this trouble just to recruit one warrior when we have many Yautja already" the giant responded as he moved to stand behind the hooded warrior.

"One, because he is an actual warrior, one of the few if not the only true master of war among the Yautja, and two this goes far deeper than even you know; besides you are my shield now all I need is Young Fury for my spear and our plan will be far easier to execute"

"If you say so" the giant replied as he looked down at his leader with what he recognized, disgustedly, as doubt.

"Phase one is now complete, I trust that you have organized phases two and three" the figure said as it sank into the shadows of an adjacent alley the giant following closely behind.

"Our mole is in place and ready for phase two, meanwhile I am currently organizing stage three, soon the Ooman will be at your disposal"

"Good, for now all we have to do is watch things fall into place" the figure said as they disappeared with one final swish of the cloak.

The serene desert planet of Choybalsa had seen an interesting history. Originally founded as a chiva planet for Yautja clans, it had been abandoned after several failed hunts, to the descendants of the many escaped and turned loose human hosts. For the most part the inhabitants of the planet enjoyed a peaceful life.

However, inside one of the many mud brick cities a violent struggle between two not of planet was taking form.

"I just want some information!" Miguel called out cocking a pair of MAC 10's as he took cover behind the corner of a doorway.

"What makes you think I will say anything Ooman!" a voice trilled in anger as the wine of a shoulder cannon being prepped echoed throughout the building.

Acting on instinct Miguel ducked down just as the wall above him was blown open.

As the blue bolt hurtled over his head Miguel stepped though the door way, raised his weapons and opened fire.

Green blood spurted as round after round impacted the semi-visible Yautja driving it backwards into a wall that had been partially destroyed in their initial fighting.

Unable to take the weight the partially destroyed wall collapsed causing the Yautja to fall backwards out what was now a gaping hole.

As Miguel approached the opening he cautiously looked out, then cursed silently in frustration as he saw the still cloaked but bleeding bad blood sprinting over the roofs and away from him.

Miguel didn't hesitate for a moment. Taking a step back he ran forward launching himself onto the nearest rooftop and began following in hot pursuit.

"Come on you little bastard" Miguel thought as he began to close the distance with his prey. The Yautja was exceptionally fast however Miguel's considerably smaller size and greater agility were just too much to outrun.

Sensing that he would not be able to make his getaway the bad blood roared in frustration and turned to face him powering up its shoulder cannon as it did so.

Miguel wasn't intimidated and as the plasma bolt sailed towards him Miguel rolled forward causing it to impact the section mud brick roof just a few centimeter behind him.

Coming out of his roll with great speed Miguel leveled his weapons and began firing again. A number of his bullets impacted the shoulder cannon causing it to short out.

Roaring in fury the bad blood tore off the shoulder cannon and activated his wrist blades.

Aggravated and fed up with the constant stalling Miguel activated his shuriken. It whirled through the air severing the bad blood's leg at the knee. It roared in agonized pain and fell face first into the mud brick.

Mounting his shuriken back onto his armor Miguel drew out one of his MAC 10's and cautiously began to approach the prone figure. As he flipped the bad blood over he was relieved to find that he was still breathing.

"Now that you have made me unnecessarily tired what do you know about this mark?" Miguel asked indicating the mark that was burned over his old clan mark.

"I will tell you nothing, our secret is one I will take to my grave!" the bad blood spat indignantly as it pulled out a hidden knife and plunged it into its heart before Miguel could stop him.

"Shit, even in disgrace they hold onto their secrets" he thought as the bad blood went limp. Deploying his wrist blades Miguel severed the bad blood's head and arm where the wrist computer was mounted.

"So much for that lead" Miguel said to himself bitterly as he reached into his armor and pulled out a small vial of disintegration fluid.

As he watched the body disintegrate he let out a small groan of frustration at his failure to obtain any information.

Activating his cloak Miguel moved soundlessly across the rooftops and away from the confused crowd that had gathered on the street below. He was so intent on leaving that he didn't notice that another cloaked figure was watching him.

"So this is the rumored Young Fury" the bad blood growled as he punched in a sequence on his wrist comp causing the holograph of another Yautja to form.

"What is the status of your mission" the holograph growled impatiently causing the bad blood to flinch slightly.

"Our messenger, was killed by the agent; however we did succeed in rallying a considerable number of outcast Yautja to our cause but I believe the traces were destroyed before they could be uncovered" he replied.

"Good, then the damage is minimal, stay on the planet until you receive the orders to move out from our leader" the image growled before it faded away.

"This Ooman had better be worth all this" he thought angrily before he too faded into the shadows.

"Another hunt, another bad blood dead and still no closer to getting any answers" Miguel thought wearily taking off his mask as he collapsed into the pilot seat of his ship.

He was exhausted from several days of hunting down his target; an exceptionally petty yet highly elusive bad blood known as Swift Foot who was wanted for both theft and the desecration of a Yautja holy temple.

"Guess duty calls" Miguel thought even more wearily as he punched in a sequence on the ships holograph display, moments later the image of Miguel's mentor and long time friend Gro'Kesh appeared.

"Glad to see you again Young Fury, what is the status of your hunt?" Gro'Kesh asked his tone cool and collected.

"Target has been eliminated; you can take him off the wanted list and fabricate the credentials now" Miguel responded as he leaned the chair back.

"Very well, I shall report it to the ancients, although I do have one question" Gro'Kesh said as his image looking straight into Miguel's eyes.

"What is that?"

"Swift foot wasn't a very notorious bad blood; hence he was not a very prestigious assignment, so why did you volunteer to go after him?"

"Why do I care about prestige earned for hunting bad bloods? I've killed many petty and infamous all the credit has always gone to someone else, besides I have my own reasons" Miguel replied looking even wearier than ever.

Sensing that the conversation was drawing to a close Gro'Kesh decided to end it with one last thought. "If you believe that this was the work of some large bad blood organization, you really should give it a rest; nothing as big as what you have told me could not possibly exist but if by some slim chance it does you really should alert the ancients"

"I will if I can get something solid" Miguel said as the image of Gro'Kesh faded away

Gro'Kesh was right of course usually he wouldn't have volunteered to bring down a petty asshole but the strange mark that Swift Foot bore had caught his eye.

Collapsing even farther back in his seat he began to reflect how he had come to this point. It had been almost two years since he had been recruited as an agent, battled with Hrak'Ni and started his attempts to expose the mysterious bad blood organization the notorious bad blood brothers had claimed to belong to. For the most part he had made little progress however he was no less determined to bust the case wide open.

"Well, what's the fun in everything being easy?" Miguel thought as gazed out into the oncoming stars. He grimaced and wished that his mate Si'Mara could have been with him as she had ways of being very persuasive. However the ancients had assigned her to another case when she was fully inducted as an arbitrator for killing an especially notorious bad blood.

He couldn't brood over it however as his gaze fell upon the severed arm and more importantly the runner's wrist computer.

"Alright my little friend let's see what you can tell me" Miguel said to himself holding up the severed arm to get a better look. All things considered it was a rather gritty prize but the information it could contain might be able to provide some way of linking together his suspicions.

"Well here goes nothing" he though hopefully as he plugged it into the monitor. A bright flash erupted in the cockpit temporarily blinding him. When his vision cleared the image of a cloaked and hooded figure stood before him.

The message was slightly garbled but Miguel managed to make out what it was saying.

"Your mission in Choybalsa will be of great help to our plan, gather as many of the outcast Yautja as you can and transport them discreetly back to my citadel. With these recruits we will be almost at full strength, after that just one more task remains before we mobilize…" the message garbled past the point of recognition and before Miguel could make to remove it the wrist comp shorted out with another intensely bright flash.

"Fuck" he cursed as looked down to see that even though the nuke hadn't detonated the wrist comp's circuitry had completely shorted out.

"So much for my evidence" Miguel said to himself as he wondered about what to do next.

"Just going to have to hope they take my word for it" he thought as he began reentering Gro'Kesh's com code. Moments later Gro'Kesh's image reappeared, he looked tired but still alert as ever.

"What is it Young Fury?"

"Gro'Kesh, I need you to arrange a meeting with the ancients as soon as possible" Miguel said a note of urgency obvious in his voice.

"Why, what is it?" Gro'Kesh replied looking confused.

"I just got a bit of information and I've got a really bad feeling that this may be way worse than either of us predicted"

**So ends the first real chapter of this story hoped you enjoyed it!**


	3. Stone Walled

**Back again and moving quickly. Please enjoy as I hope you do.**

Stone Walled

"Incoming ship identify yourself"

The metallic voice of the automated docking system brought Miguel back to consciousness. Looking through the view port he saw the Yautja home world grow close and grimaced. It hadn't exactly been the friendliest place to him but regardless he had a job to do.

"This is arbitrator Young Fury on business for the ancients" Miguel responded as he began steering the ship into an angle of entry.

"Voice recognition confirmed and priority docking authorized, please proceed to docking bay 4"

"I wonder if the ancients really will convene for me" he thought slightly worried as the ship began to skim the surface of the planet on its approach vector.

Although he had never voiced his concerns to anyone he had always been privately worried that the ancients were beginning to get too political for their own good and would snub him in favor of the concerns of the leaders of the more powerful clans.

"Well, can't worry about that now just have to stay in the present and hope that things turn out well" Miguel said to himself as he began to bring his ship into dock. As he felt the docking clamps hiss closed Miguel left his seat and began making his way towards his quarters.

"Alright time to see what they've got planned" Miguel thought as he quickly donned his armor, mauls, and shurikens and began heading towards the ramp. As he began to descend he saw, with some relief that Gro'Kesh was waiting for him.

As he approached the arbitrator gave him a gesture of respect. "I have contacted the high ancient Zo'Chi and he has agreed to convene the council, however it will take a few hours"

"Glad to know I still merit a session" Miguel said relief flooding him, the fact that the ancients had agreed to meet with him had given him some hope that they might actually take him seriously.

"While we wait for the council we should stop by one of my favorite cantinas" Gro'Kesh growled in a low tone. "There are a few things I want to personally discuss with you before you speak with the council"

Miguel quickly agreed, after he hadn't been able to have a good time for a while and he desperately needed it, so like a pair of old friends they turned and walked out of the docking bay.

As they walked down one of the main streets Miguel felt the gazes of both Yautja and human fixated on him. At this point he had gotten used to the gazes given to him even if they weren't 

exactly complimentary; however tests of his mettle had become fewer and farther between so he had no complaints.

When they got a good ways up the main walk Gro'Kesh stopped and indicated one of the smaller buildings. "That is spot, it's quiet and out of the way, an excellent place to hold a discreet conversation" Gro'Kesh said quietly.

As they entered the cantina Miguel let out a sigh, as usual no sooner had he entered gazes of both the Yautja and human eta that attended them were drawn to him. As own gaze swept the crowded room he spied a table in a very back corner and indicated it to Gro'Kesh.

"So what did you want to talk to me about so badly?" Miguel asked as he took his seat.

As Gro'Kesh took his own seat across the table he punched a combination in his wrist computer before looking back and replying with great consternation.

"I have jammed the listening equipment of anyone who may try. What I wanted was to talk to you about what you found out about your suspected organization"

"There's nothing suspected about it" Miguel replied as he began to recount the message he had just heard. As he finished he looked back to see that Gro'Kesh's face was screwed up in deep thought and knew that his mind was now working with lightning speed as he mulled over what he had just heard.

"If what you say is true than we may indeed be facing a monumental crisis" Gro'Kesh replied in a voice that suggested to Miguel that he desperately wanted to act on this new information.

Gro'Kesh was disciplined about letting his emotions show however and remained calm as he again looked back at Miguel. "The ancients will decide about what to do, however there is one other thing I wanted to speak to you about"

"And what is that?" Miguel responded curiously.

"The agent program has successfully been expanded; we now have more than a dozen agents operating on earth as well as several more amongst the chiva planets all of them are chiva tested and hardened from battle against bad blood opponents!" Gro'Kesh trilled his voice full of pride.

"Excellent, they took your proposal seriously, that calls for a celebratory hit!" Miguel replied enthusiastically as he tossed back a shot of C'ntlip liquor.

"Indeed it is, obviously I can't tell you their names and locations but I can tell you what they are as Ooman nationality and fighting creeds they claimed to belong to" Gro'Kesh said tossing back his own shot as he typed in another series on his wrist comp before sending it to Miguel's own causing it to activate.

"Alright, let's see what other kinds of poor sons of bitches you managed to recruit into this campaign" Miguel replied as he began to read down the list.

"Okay, I see that so far you got Japanese, Chinese, several Native American tribes, Inuit, Maori New Zealander, Filipino, Egyptian, old Celtic, Zulu, Indian (India), and Aztec orders of the Jaguar and Eagle. That's quite a diverse list, where the hell did find those last two?" Miguel replied as he turned off his holo projector and downed another shot.

"We know them well, and some of their warrior ways still survive" Gro'Kesh said rising from his seat.

"Glad to hear it" Miguel replied taking his third shot before rising as well.

"We should go now Young Fury, the ancients should be ready soon"

"Lead the way" Miguel said as they exited the cantina and began walking up the main street once more.

As they reached the temple Miguel saw that a crowd had gathered in front of Yautja standing on a raised pedestal. He was speaking in low growls but Miguel could tell that he was being very forceful and charismatic in his words.

"Who the hell is that?" Miguel asked indicating the Yautja to Gro'Kesh.

"He is called Sha'Rol and he is one of the new ancients and a grand stander" Gro'Kesh replied his voice full of distrust.

"Sounds like he hasn't got the best reputation" Miguel said as the two of them turned away and began heading for the rear of the temple.

"It's only rumors but I still don't trust him, that as you well know needs to be earned"

"Ah Young Fury glad you have decided to grace our presence again" the voice of the high ancient Zo'Chi trilled out as they approached the entrance to the council chambers.

"It's good to see you again" Miguel said as he watched Zo'Chi proceed inside.

"Don't worry; our guard will come when we are ready for you the high ancient responded as he disappeared from sight. Moments later a guard appeared and motioned for them to enter.

"Here goes nothing" Miguel thought holding his breath as both he and Gro'Kesh walked inside.

As Miguel entered the chamber his eyes swept the room taking in the sight of the jam packed chamber he let out a low whistle of amazement.

"Damn, didn't think this many would show up" he thought as he took center stage.

"Young Fury, Agent of the Arbitrators; we have assembled here at you calling on account that you have recently come across information that indicates a threat from the bad bloods" the voice of Zo'Chi echoed throughout the chamber as he gave his intro.

Gathering himself Miguel stood his ground and replied in an extraordinarily strong voice "Indeed, recently I killed a bad blood who was carrying information that pointed to the prospect of an act retaliation by a large scale bad blood organization"

The room lit up with growls and roars each one holding an accusation ranging from calling foul to needs for definite investigation.

"Quiet all of you!" the high ancients voice roared out so loudly that the chamber became instantly silent.

"This quite some allegation, Young Fury please tell us why you think this is the case" Zo'Chi continued as the ancients turned back to regard Miguel.

Miguel took in a deep breath and began to recount the information that he had heard back on the ship. As he finished he looked back to see with relief that the high ancient was deep in thought over what he had just heard.

"High Ancient if I may be allowed to speak" a voice Miguel had never heard before said from amongst the ranks of the ancients.

Miguel turned to see a figure rise so that he could be seen by all. As Miguel looked him up and down from a distance he recognized him as Sha'Rol, the one that had been speaking to crowd prior to his arrival. His build was similar to the bad blood brother Fo'Sun and every inch of him screamed bureaucrat.

"I have doubts about what this…Ooman claims" his voice was low yet strong and evidently groomed for politics even though Miguel thought that the concept was alien to Yautja. Also even though his tone was polite Miguel could sense the contempt.

"His word has been proven good since he's been here" Zo'Chi replied to grim trills of agreement from several of the others.

"Indeed that may be high ancient but these claims are absolutely ludicrous and given the usual untrustworthiness of Oomans it would be foolish to listen based on just his word after all it is saying that full scale war may be on the horizon" Sha'Rol replied to enthusiastic trills of agreement.

"Shit this guys a crowd player" Miguel thought as he heard Gro'Kesh growl softly beside him with well concealed anger.

"The message was destroyed, some kind of safety device whoever utilized knows what they're doing" Miguel replied his voice steady.

"Was it?" Sha'Rol replied his voice full of doubt as he turned to look directly into Miguel's eyes as if trying to intimidate him.

Miguel wasn't intimidated however as he continued. "Back when I defeated the bad blood brothers their leader Hrak'Ni also claimed membership in this group and he bore the same mark as that of the bad blood I killed.

"Ah yes your defeat of the notorious bad blood brothers, the official story which I am more inclined to believe is that several valiant arbitrators defeated them using their great combat skills. The legend is that you, utilizing Ooman weapons and warriors killed them as well as many of their associates"

"Why is my past being called into question?" Miguel responded placidly as he continued to look at Sha'Rol.

"No reason, I just think your so called exploits and importance have been exaggerated" the Yautja responded without any emotion.

"Glad Si'Mara's not here, she probably would have charged this fucking idiot by now" Miguel thought as he flashed back to memories on the fact that even though she had become more clear headed her temper still was very wild and impulsive.

"Regardless this has got to be investigated or the very stability of the Yautja could be threatened" Miguel responded turning his gaze back to the high ancient.

"I've heard enough of this" Sha'Rol spoke up again. "Even if he heard talk of some pathetic bad blood rabble attempting to cause trouble we will crush them with impunity after all are we not the mighty Yautja" his tone soared to a roar and was joined by several others.

Sensing defeat Miguel gave his sign of respect as he turned to leave Gro'Kesh flanking him closely.

As they turned off the main street and into an alley Miguel let out a sigh of frustration. "Talk about getting stone walled, so much for that plan"

"Indeed, he rose to the ancients as a consolation to his clan's new found might" Gro'Kesh replied wearily.

As Gro'Kesh finished his sentence Miguel sensed a presence approaching from behind. Spinning around with blurring speed he whipped one of his mauls off his back and brought it up just in time for it to clash with black steeled glaive.

Looking up from his guard he backed up and smiled; his first since departing to Choybalsa. "Glad to see that you're still alive and with me my mate".

Si'Mara returned his smile as the three of them exited the alley and began to walk back towards the cantina.

**In case anyone was wondering, yes the warriors in the list mentioned will be fully utilised as part of the story. see you next time  
**


	4. Stars Apart

**I'm Back, sorry about the wait but now I'm in college and completely swamped with work, Still, please enjoy!**

Stars Apart

"Young Fury, where are you?" José thought disheartened as he took in the sight of his old apartment. Judging from its condition he could tell that it had been abandoned for some time, however there was no sign of Young Fury anywhere.

As he began rummaging through the mess of various items scattered about on the floor his mind drifted back to when he had last been there. For all intents and purposes it had looked only somewhat less trashy, however he did remembered telling Miguel about his leaving for that last ill fated trip.

However as his gaze flickered across an old log with Young Fury's name on the cover he was brought swiftly back to reality. As he picked it up and looked onto the first page he felt a great sense of anxiety overtake him.

"My son, please don't tell me you fell in with the underworld, then again with my absence I can't say I blame you" José thought as he began flipping through the pages. The log contained page after page of both loan sharking collections and coded mob payments that left little doubt in José's mind about how his son had survived in his absence.

"Guess those corporate assholes didn't bother to send my death compensation home" José thought angrily as he dropped the log book on the floor and continued searching through the mess. He stopped suddenly however as an obvious thought struck him.

"Miguel probably took my hardware when he left" José said quietly to himself as he fingered the hilt of the Talwar that was concealed under his stolen coat.

Moving into his bedroom he spotted his old gun safe. Upon opening it he wasn't surprised to find that both his 9mm handguns and shotgun were now missing.

"At least he left me my favorite piece" José said as he checked the lockbox within the safe to find, with relief that it was still locked and untouched.

"I just wonder where the hell the key would have gone after…"

He stopped himself in mid thought as an idea struck him. Remembering his escape from the research facility back in California he drew out his Talwar and nicked his finger.

"Let's see if this still works" he thought as he held his finger on lock. The steel warped and twisted away as his blood ate through it with impunity. Finally when the lock couldn't take anymore it snapped off and fell to the floor with a clatter.

Sheathing his Talwar José opened the box and withdrew his prized gun, a massive and ornately decorated S&W 500 revolver with a 10.5 inch (267mm) barrel. Sticking the gun into the pocket his coat José turned and walked back into the living area.

"Only thing now is figuring out where to start looking for my son" José thought as he began flipping through several log books that Miguel had left behind.

He stopped suddenly as his eyes found an expenditure that seemed very familiar. "Information price: 500."

"Benelli, you son of bitch" he thought with a sigh. José had known him well because one thing about both illegal businesses and off the record operations was universal, whether you were a weed dealer or an international assassin, everyone needed to know where their job could be best carried out.

Tossing the log book to the floor he picked up a box full of ammunition and walked out. Minutes later he turned onto one of the main streets where his eyes took in a familiar sight. Luigi's bar, the place looked almost exactly how he had left it and hopefully Benelli still used it as his place of business.

Taking a deep breath he walked up the stairs and entered the bar. It was almost exactly as he had remembered it, mostly a dive with the heavy aroma of cigarette smoke and outdated rock music playing in the background.

As he looked around he was relieved to see Benelli sitting in one of the tables in the back of the bar enjoying what looked to be a big Cuban cigar. As he approached and sat down Benelli looked up and his eyes grew as wide as dinner plates.

"José, is that you, what the fuck are you doing here? I thought you were dead" Benelli coughed out clearly surprised.

"I was dead, but that's not why I'm here" José responded looking back at Benelli in absolute seriousness.

"Tell me about it, after all you two seem to have a habit of turning up alive and changed in some way, on top that you both seem to have all kinds of weird shit follow you back" Benelli said taking another puff of his cigar.

"So you've seen Miguel then" José replied looking Benelli square in the eyes.

"Yeah he showed up two years ago asking for a last bit of info, after that he took off and disappeared from the face of the earth, I haven't seen him since"

"Indeed, you sure there wasn't more that involved you?" José asked suspiciously. He sensed Benelli's heart start to beat faster and could tell that at least some part of the truth had been left out.

"I can't really say because that is something I pledged to keep to myself" Benelli replied with a tone of slight defiance.

Grunting in frustration José grabbed Benelli by his jacket. The man was completely unprepared and could only yell out in terror as he flew across the room landing solidly on one of the tables.

As he tried to get up José was on him again and he was hoisted into the air by his shirt front.

"Now what do you know" José asked his tone placid but with a tinge of desperation present it sounded strangely like a request for help.

"Okay okay! I'm sorry I was wrong to try and hide it from you but we got into this fight with these invisible demons and who would ever fucking believe shit like that, you know?!" Benelli quickly replied as José lowered him back to the floor.

"I'm also sorry for losing my temper but I am desperate find my son; now you say you were involved in fighting some sort of invisible demons?" José said as he stroked his beard thoughtfully

"Yeah it's kind of a weird story" Benelli said as they sat back down.

"Tell it to me I've got nothing else to go on so far, besides I think all three of us have met these demons" José replied as Benelli began to tell his story.

"That little prick!" Si'Mara roared as she slammed her fist down onto the table. They had gone back to the cantina and predictably Si'Mara wasn't happy by the recent turn of events.

"With most of the council preferring to turn a deaf ear we need to figure out some other way of pursuing this" Miguel replied shifting his focus from Si'Mara back to Gro'Kesh.

"It won't be easy, after all the ancients are the administrators for all arbitrators including the agents" Gro'Kesh growled thoughtfully.

"That's what concerns me, the ancients turned down my argument so easily that I suspect this organization has operatives among them too" Miguel replied as he hammered down yet another shot.

"If that's true than we could already be in very deep shit" Si'Mara growled as she tossed back her own drink.

"We will have to see more about this later, for now we should enjoy ourselves on account of another successful hunt" Gro'Kesh growled as he stood up to leave.

"Where you heading Gro'Kesh?" Miguel asked with a wry smile.

"I think you already have a good idea; maybe you should do the same" Gro'Kesh replied with trill of excitement as he turned and left the cantina.

"Indeed maybe I should" Miguel replied as he sniffed into the air. A sweet and spirited fragrance of pheromones greeted his senses causing him to sigh with pleasure. Casting his gaze around the cantina he saw that many of the Yautja patrons were now staring directly at the two of them.

Moving his hands to provide quick access to his weapons he looked to Si'Mara and saw her give a tempting smile before slowly rising from her seat. With a feeling of great anticipation Miguel imitated her and together they walked out.

"I guess really do have some luck" Si'Mara thought as she closely followed her mate into his ship. As she entered she looked around she let out a shudder of suppressed excitement.

"I see you remember this ship" she heard Young Fury say softly as they entered the ship's sleeping quarters and he doffed his armor revealing the numerous scars he obtained on his hunts.

"Too well, I remember how you knocked me out cold back in that alley and I woke up trying to destroy this ship" Si'Mara replied as she moved slowly closer. Their faces now were inches apart, locked in a tension that seemed like it would break at any moment

Finally her will gave out and she fell into an embrace with her mate. Time seem to pass very slowly as she felt herself melt against her mate forgetting all her pain and frustrations both past and present. Next thing she knew she felt herself being lowered onto the bed.

Miguel could feel Si'Mara shudder with joy as he lowered her onto the bed. Her pheromones were so strong and sweet that he could feel himself going crazy with desire.

He had no warning, no sooner had he finished lowering her when she reached up, grabbed him and pulled him downward on top of her. Next thing he knew she was kissing him with great passion.

Drawing his arms around his mate Miguel felt a rush of emotion more powerful than he had ever felt on any battlefield. His rush became even stronger as he heard Si'Mara moan in complete ecstasy as he entered her and began thrusting powerfully.

Si'Mara moaned in over and over in utter joy; feeling her own emotions build up inside her as she began to climax. In a desperate attempt to hold on she began to dig her nails into Young Fury's back.

However she could not hold back and let out an all powerful roar as she felt liquid fire erupting within her. An emotional flood of liberation, power, and freedom emanated through her body all it once, so strong that they scared her. She collapsed back on the bed letting the flood of emotions wash over and engulf her in complete bliss.

As Miguel withdrew to lie next to Si'Mara he felt his own powerful and positive emotions seize him. He knew with a resolve even more solid than his void steel that no matter what other sex he may have with another in past, she would be the only one who could truly give him the connection and the sheer euphoria he now felt; he wished that he could lie there with her for all eternity.

However he was brought back to reality as he heard his wrist comp signaling that the ship had picked up someone outside trying to reach him.

Getting up Miguel donned his armor and Mauls as he moved towards the ramp. He readied himself as it hissed open, past experiences had taught him to be careful when going from one space to another he couldn't already see.

To his great surprise he found the High Ancient Zo'Chi standing there with only Gro'Kesh by his side.

"High ancient, what are you doing here, and where are your guards?" Miguel asked his curiosity mounting.

"Young Fury you must leave soon, the ancients have reconvened unexpectedly and decided, against my judgment, that you are behind a plot to dislodge them" Zo'Chi responded speaking quickly.

"What do you mean?" Miguel asked feeling an expertly suppressed panic swell up in his chest.

"They have turned on you and now you have been branded as a bad blood"

**So Ancients have turned against Young Fury and José is back in action, when will their paths collide! If you think the sex scene was corny I apologize, that was my first attempt to describe a sex scene that was more than just a casual fling. See you next time  
**


	5. Renegade

**Hello, Yes I live again, Sorry about the space between uploads but between the first semester at college among everything else it has been difficult to find enough time to write creatively. To those who continue reading and those who are new please enjoy, I will get the next chapter up as soon as I am able, I do not mind what people have to say as long as I can work with it. Please enjoy**

Renegade

"What the fuck do you mean I've been branded as a bad blood?!" Miguel said in surprise as his mind raced wildly.

He just couldn't believe it, only a short while he had been happier than he could ever remember, now he had to start thinking up a whole new drastic action plan because those he was fighting to protect had turned against him.

"I mean exactly what I say, the ancients reconvened unexpectedly and have convicted you of plotting against them" Zo'Chi growled in response. His voice was cool and collected but Miguel could tell that his mind was also moving at a lighting fast speed.

"And just how the fuck did they arrive at that conclusion!?" Miguel said angrily as a noise behind him caused him looked back towards his ship; he wasn't surprised to see Si'Mara standing there with look of equal outrage on her face.

"We should talk more inside the ship" Gro'Kesh responded as the three of them began silently advancing towards the ship's ramp.

Miguel tensed slightly as they began to make their way into the ship. He had been around Gro'Kesh long enough to know that his mentor was being absolutely serious with him and with such a bleak expression across his mentor's face he could tell that his situation was grim.

"So how exactly did the ancients convict me of conspiring against them?" Miguel said as he sat down in one of chairs positioned in his prep room.

"An elder who served as a chief advisor to many of the ancients was murdered a short time ago. According to them your ritual knife was used as the murder weapon" Zo'Chi responded as he gazed back, a look of apprehension now adorning his features.

Miguel sat back in his chair for a moment. His mind was still racing as tried to figure out what to do next.

"Do you believe these accusations?" he asked, keeping his voice steady as he looked the high ancient square in the face.

"No, I do not" the high ancient responded defiantly. "You were off world at the time of this murder and I remember you explaining how your knife had been lost during an altercation with a bad blood, I have only let this stand because…"

"You wanted to use me to flush out those you suspect of being traitors within the ancients" Miguel said, completing the high ancient's sentence as he sat back in his seat, thinking hard. "Coincidently, who called the council together to banish me?"

"Who do you think" Gro'Kesh responded as he deployed his wrist blades.

Malicious intent shone in his eyes and Miguel automatically knew that his accuser could have been none other, than Sha'Rol, the spineless Yautja bureaucrat who'd originally shot down his arguments about a bad blood organization in the council.

"That coward, I'll tear his dick off!" Si'Mara roared as she menacingly deployed her own wrist blades.

Miguel felt a ripple of pride, elation, and desire as he watched his beloved mate stand in all powerful fury over the council's betrayal. He wasn't able to dwell on the sweet feeling for long however as Zo'Chi quickly broke the silence.

"Time is short and the council will soon move to detain you" the high ancient said his tone becoming more urgent as he spoke.

The more Miguel listened to the anxiety displayed by the high ancient, the more surreal and dire the situation seemed to become. Anything that could rattle an ancient like that had to be a threat to the society itself.

"Okay, so time is short, I need to flee; I got that part, but what then?" Miguel asked as he began to ponder his own response.

"What do you feel we should do?" the high ancient responded as if he was testing him in some way. Miguel thought for a moment before finally responding.

"If they have infiltrated all the way into the ancients then they are larger and better organized than I originally thought. This could mean that an all out war may be inevitable."

As Miguel finished his statement he felt a tinge of unease as he took in the two senior Yautja looking so worried, almost panicked in fact, judging by the looks on their unmasked faces.

"Are you guys ok?"

"We're not ok Young Fury, because there has not been an actual war between the Yautja since we first went on the hunt into space" Gro'Kesh replied as his calm expression came over him once again.

That of all things made sense to Miguel as he began to realize just how great the disparity between Yautja and Human was in the realm of actual armed conflict. Humans were no stranger to war, and had never gone a century without having at least one major conflict in some part of the world. If the upstanding Yautja were not capable of fighting an opponent with equal in capabilities then Miguel feared that an ocean of blood would be spilled in the coming storm.

Gathering his senses, he retained his composure before speaking again in a still calm tone.

"So what you're telling me is that the arbitrators and honorable Yautja are woefully unprepared for an organized bad blood uprising?"

"That, unfortunately would be correct" Gro'Kesh said solemnly as he flashed a quick look at Zo'Chi, the guilt was evident on both of their faces.

Miguel held back his comments as he thought even faster. He was worried beyond description now. If a bad blood revolt was successful in overthrowing the ancients there could be catastrophic consequences that didn't just include the Yautja.

"Can't the ancients gather some form of force to oppose them?" he said hopefully.

Zo'Chi considered his statement for a moment before shaking his head. "If events are moving as fast as you predict, then it would take too long for them to reach a decision and with Sha'Rol in a powerful position on the council, I doubt that the outcome of their decision would be favorable."

"That damn bureaucrat will be the death of all of us!" Miguel roared as he slammed his fist onto the table in sheer frustration. He felt so overwhelmed by the forces against him it was as if the Yautja gods themselves were conspiring a plot for his undoing. Feeling arms of subtle strength wrap around his shoulders Miguel turned to see that Si'Mara had moved behind him, her manner one of confident and tender reassurance.

"You don't get to lose control of your rage, that's my job remember?" Si'Mara said as she smiled at him.

"I almost forgot about that, slap me upside the head if it ever happens again" he chuckled quietly as he returned her smile. Feeling rejuvenated and ready Miguel turned back to the two Yautja who still sat across the table from him. Miguel waited in thought for a long moment before he finally spoke up again.

"Alright, I may have a plan; the council will deliberate too long and may not even bother to act. On top of that this organization is very capable and professional"

"We already know that Young Fury, so what do you propose" Gro'Kesh responded as he shifted his gaze to look Miguel directly in the eyes.

"I'm saying that if the council will not act, then we're going to have to ourselves"

"What did you have in mind" Zo'Chi said a grin coming over his face as he began to get the idea.

"First off Zo'Chi you need to stall the council to keep them from getting suspicious, at the same time contact elders that would trust you before even the council itself and start gathering any clans that will loyally rally to our call against the bad bloods. Gro'Kesh, I also need you and Si'Mara to gather as many trusted arbitrators as possible, make sure you can trust them, if they're good enough to get a mole into the ancients then you can bet your ass they have some in the arbitrators. If this works out then we might be able to assemble a force strong enough to defeat them, you got all that" Miguel said as he turned his gaze back to them. They all nodded to affirm that they had understood him.

"It seems like a sound plan, I do believe that we could discreetly assemble such a force, but how would we use it and what will you be doing?" Zo'Chi asked as he furrowed his brow inquisitively.

"I will have to go renegade and head back to earth to seek out new leads; before we can launch the coup de grâce we need to know where to go and the trail last went cold there, given their large scale activities on the planet that is where it should heat up again. If I can figure it out in time, I will contact you and we will barge right through their fucking front door, we have to take this fight to them before it can spill out into the streets of the home world!" Miguel said his voice controlled but fiery.

"We will do as you say" Gro'Kesh said rising from his seat. "One more thing, while the council may have turned a blind eye to you many of the arbitrators have had their own suspicions and many of the other agents have been working along similar lines as you. I have transferred a list of the agents into your wrist-computer, find them, gather them together, and we will not only have an additional force but you should be able to move more swiftly"

"Got it, alright now let's get to it, good luck to you" Miguel said as he stood as well.

As Gro'Kesh and Zo'Chi turned and began to head for the ramp he turned back to Si'Mara. Her look of apprehension unsettled him but he knew, as he always had, that his mate would find the strength to persevere through this danger.

"This doesn't feel right, I should be going with you" Si'Mara said a hint of sadness evident in her otherwise firm voice. Miguel pulled her into a tight hug in hopes that he could offer her the same strength that she had just given him.

"Don't worry I'll find out who has done this and where they hide, then we will finish this, but I will be fine Gro'Kesh is in greater need of your help, we must find support" he said holding his face so close he could feel her body heat emanating off her in intense waves. She nodded to show that she understood and he held her even closer still.

Suddenly a roar from outside rocked them both out of their stupor. Seizing his mauls off his back Miguel turned and ran as fast as he could towards the ramp with Si'Mara hot on his heels, her glaive held firmly in her right hand.

As Miguel quickly descended the ramp he looked ahead and grimaced at the sight. Eight Yautja stood unmoving as they faced down Gro'Kesh and the high ancient Zo'Chi. Whipping his mauls off his back Miguel and Si'Mara moved so swiftly the eye could barely follow and within seconds they stood side by side with the two Yautja.

"You are Young Fury, you will come with us" one of the mysterious Yautja said pointing to him.

"And if I refuse?" Miguel replied a cold grin coming across his face.

"Then we will make, right after we cut down your companions!" the Yautja snarled as he deployed his Combi-Stick. All of the Yautja deployed their melee weapons, Miguel was taken aback momentarily that none of the attackers had brought Plasmacasters but he quickly brought himself back to the present.

"You don't know what you've started" Miguel said as he spun his mauls out so the blades were extended forward and charged. He moved so swiftly that before the masked Yautja could bring his combi-stick up for defense Miguel had come up to him and swung both his mauls outward creating a scissor motion.

The Yautja's severed head hit the ground just as his body began to slump. The other attackers were so taken aback that before they were able to swarm him, the other three warriors were charging into the fray.

Gro'Kesh easily parried a thrust from one of the attackers before impaling the Yautja through the stomach with a thrust of his own.

Si'Mara roared in fury as she rolled under a sweep from a glaive. She came up onto her knees and raised the shaft of the glaive above her head, easily blocking a vertical slash from her opponents. Shifting her stance she swept one end of her blade upward into a high arc which threw her opponent off balance as she turned around and brought the opposite end screaming past he torso and go clean into her opponent's midsection. Casting her gaze around she saw the high ancient impaling another attacker on his wrist blades while the three remaining Yautja beat a hasty retreat into the darkness of night.

"Who was that, the council's enforcers?" she said as she turned to see Young Fury wiping the fluorescent green blood off his mauls.

"They fight too clumsily to be arbitrators; their skill was on par with a Young Blood's" Gro'Kesh growled as he looked over the dead bodies lying sprawled on the ground before him. "They must be bad bloods dispatched to kill you or take you to silence suspicion"

"If that's the case then events are moving even faster than I anticipated" Miguel said as he turned his gaze to the high ancient. "We need to move right now, time is critical, get my ship clearance to leave the port and start gathering those who would follow us."

Nodding to show that he understood Zo'Chi motioned to Gro'Kesh and Si'Mara and together they disappeared into the darkness, heading back into the city.

Turning Miguel moved as quickly as he could back onto ship, stored his gear and watched as the ship's control console blinked indicating clearance to leave.

With a whoop of exhilaration Miguel throttled to ship to its maximum causing him to shoot out of the home world's atmosphere and into space like a bullet. "Time to go back to paradise" he thought wearily.

Back on Earth outside of the city of Chicago, José looked out over the moonlit scenery of Lake Huron an ominous wind whipping around him causing the ends of his trench coat to flutter.

"There are clouds of a great storm gathering on the horizon, I can feel it" he thought to himself wearily as he continued to just stand and stare at the lake. "Soon they will break with their full might and many will be washed away by it."


	6. Collision Course

**Hello, I know that this is a long time in coming and many of the original readers are no longer here but that has been the way my life has played out. I'm glad that I was finally able to finish and post this chapter and I hope to role out with another one soon but with college and everything else it will be difficult. **

**Anyway for new readers, this is not a stand alone story and even though my earlier stories are a little rough since I wrote them when I was 15 they still explain why everything in this story is as it is so please read them if you want a complete idea of what's going on. Other than that please read and review!**

Collision Course

"So, out of the frying pan and into the fire" Miguel muttered to himself as he put his hands over his face again and rubbed his eyes.

He had spent so much energy trying to expose the bad bloods and now that they finally had made a move he was hoping vehemently that they would make a mistake. Because if he couldn't break this case so wide open that the ancients couldn't ignore it, then he would probably be put to death for more than just treason.

"I can only hope that Earth will yield some answers, if not I can at least rally the other agents for the fight of their lives"

As he absentmindedly watched the stars flying past the ship's cockpit viewport his mind felt like a complete wreck. Even the thought of what he was up against blew his mind, especially after what happened concerning the ancients.

"That bureaucrat Sha'Rol, is easy enough to pick as a rat in the ancients, but is he the only one on the council?" he asked himself again as he activated the ship's database and began cycling through the past of Sha'Rol.

He had learned earlier on in his career as an agent that the Yautja arbitrators kept open, yet secretive records on all living Yautja who held the status of Young Blood or above, the unblooded and eta were excluded and the honorably dead were sealed.

Miguel personally didn't have a file given what he did but that suited Miguel just fine, because the last thing he had wanted was a Yautja big brother staring over his shoulder while he did its dirty work.

As the document about Sha'Rol appeared on the screen the computerized voice of the ship came to life.

"File is password encoded; please insert the correct password to proceed"

"Encoded, what the hell?" Miguel thought as he looked to see that the document had indeed been encoded. It caught him off guard because the ship was still authorized as an arbitrator vessel to open all files; if one had been encoded to the arbitrators then someone had to be taking special care to hide something important.

"Override encoding, agent code number 000" Miguel said to the ships consol. It had always struck him as odd that the ancients would authorize agents to get a master override key into the database, but as agent commands didn't show up on record they probably did that so the arbitrators could access it covertly.

"Vocal signature acknowledged as top secret and deleted from record, opening file now" the mechanical voice responded as the information on Sha'Rol spilled onto the data screen.

"Relatively weak as hunter, questionable passage of the kiande amedha trial, suspiciously rises to the rank of elder following mysterious deaths of both his predecessor and opponent in the subsequent feud over leadership, arbitrator investigation into the deaths stalled when lead investigator went missing." The more of the file Miguel read the more he could feel his own consternation grow.

"That's just fucking great; this guy makes the godfather look like Mr. honest" Miguel thought as he ran over the long lists of suspicions the arbitrators had accumulated. None of it had been proven of course, but the constant disappearance of opponents was very intriguing information.

Miguel was just about to shut the log when a small line at the bottom of the screen caught his attention and his eyes lit up with excitement. "Original second-in-command banished following suspected involvement in a deliberately botched chiva and blatant displays of cowardice, last know location the Ooman city designated Chicago"

"Interface, input renegade's bio signature and information into my wrist-computer" Miguel said, his excitement rising ever still.

The computer's voice came back on as Miguel finished his command. "Processing… bio signature of disgraced exile and former clan lieutenant Ga'Knash implanted"

"So maybe there is another link to these bastards after all, what's the bet that he didn't go into exile just for minor involvement in a botched chiva and cowardice" Miguel thought as he felt the ship begin to slow down. Looking out the viewport he took in the majestic sight of earth, the shimmering oceans and continents of his home world gave Miguel a sense of peace he hadn't felt in quite some time.

"Alright, time to hunt for some answers to this goddamn puzzle" he thought as he retreated back into his quarters and began donning his armor and weapons.

"Activate cloaking, Target landing area outside of Chicago" he ordered as he began to feel the ship descend into the atmosphere. Moving over to the side of his bed he picked up the pair of Desert Eagles he had acquired on the hunt for the bad blood brothers two years ago.

He enjoyed the use human weapons both for their raw power and for the sake of his own human identity, which unlike other human hunters among the Yautja, he had chosen to embrace. However he had made a few alterations to the weapons by tooling his original clan mark into the grips of the guns and had the slogan matching the rest of his weapons tooled onto the sides of the barrels.

Loading magazines into each gun he cocked both of them and stashed them into his shoulder holsters, before donning the long black trench coat he usually carried to conceal his armor.

Moving towards the ramp exit Miguel keyed it open and stepped off the ship.

"Time to find a new lead in this shithole of a city" Miguel thought as he donned his Yautja modified sunglasses and moved silently off into the night, inexorably drawn towards the brightly lit city.

"Someone new has arrived this night, someone who just might cause the coming storm to break" José thought as he turned his attention towards the star-filled night sky, he wasn't entirely certain how he knew, but the primal feeling of foreboding was ripe within his chest. He had just finished a sword exercise and all his senses had become focused.

As he looked out over the calm darkness of Lake Michigan he again turned his thoughts to his own personal reason for being here. "Young Fury, where are you? Why can't I find you?" His chain of thought was cut off quickly however as his nostrils inhaled a familiar stench.

"Yautja!" José thought with alarm as he began to hear the electric crackle of cloaking devices being deactivated. Whipping around with blurring speed he drew his S&W .500 and pointed it at the first of the three Yautja to emerge. The leader was enormous, reaching a height of eight and a half feet it was the largest Yautja José had ever seen, the two smaller ones flanking him looked puny by comparison. However, despite their intimidating demeanor, they refrained from attacking.

"Ooman" the massive Yautja growled his voice incredibly deep. "I have observed your fighting skills and have come to offer you a chance to bring down those that hunt your race"

"So, you are not here to kill me?" José replied coolly.

"That will depend on your answer" the Yautja continued "I am giving you a chance to fight with us against the Yautja and correct the wrongs brought down upon you race"

"Why would you desire to kill your own kind?" José asked, somewhat perplexed by what the Yautja was saying

"You will discover that in time"

"Regrettably then, I will have to decline, as enticing a prospect as that is, I have other business to attend to" José replied holding his revolver in his left hand as his right began to move slowly towards his Talwar.

"That is indeed regrettable, if you will not join then I have no more business here, after all a more important job calls my attention" the massive Yautja replied as he activated his cloak and began to leave, "Young Bloods, kill him"

As the massive Yautja vanished into the night, his smaller companions turned on José, their stench of eagerness made it clear that they wouldn't back down. Without warning José fired his revolver twice. The powerful slugs caused both masks to crater and short out, but they didn't penetrate enough to kill.

With roars of rage both Yautja tore the masks from their faces and deployed their weapons. One held a combi-staff; the other had deployed his wrist blades as though he thought José didn't merit a longer weapon.

Holstering his revolver, José drew his Talwar just as the Yautja armed with his wrist blades attacked. As the Yautja threw a wide hook José brought his sword into an outside block causing the blades to clash viciously in a brief blow.

Stepping backwards, José easily parried and dodged a few more awkward slashes. As he ducked under another awkward swing José slashed outward catching the Yautja in the side. The sword sheered through the body netting cutting deep into the Yautja's flesh and causing it to bellow out a roar of agony. The Yautja dropped to its knees as José brought his sword back around cleanly severing his opponent's head.

As the Yautja dropped dead on the ground José spun to face his second attacker. Wasting no time the second Yautja roared in anger, bringing his combi-staff downwards in a diagonal arc.

Fueled by the primal fury of his xenomorph blood José easily blocked the strike. Shifting his stance, José broke his block and slashed his sword down the shaft of the combi-staff. His move cut off the Yautja's hand and caused it to stumble backwards with a grunt of pain, desperately trying to fend off José with a clumsy stab attempt.

José easily parried the clumsy attack and thrust his sword forward plunging it into the Yautja's heart and sent it crashing to the ground in a heap.

"It seems that the two of you were overconfident in your own underdeveloped abilities, yet why would Yautja be recruiting human warriors?" José thought, sheathing his talwar as he stroked his beard thoughtfully.

Shifting his sense to wind he picked up another Yautja scent. Turning his focus he began scanning his surroundings before sighting it on the roof of a small; building about. It wasn't extraordinarily large or intimidating, and when it figured out that José was moving towards it jumped down and began to bolt back towards the city.

"That bastard must have watched the whole fight; well if he gets back I'm just going to have that many more problems" José thought to himself as he began to chasing the fleeing Yautja.

"Looks like this one wants to die tired" he thought mirroring the movements of his quarry as he began to steadily close the distance between them.

"Damn, this brings back quite a few memories" Miguel thought as he landed onto the roof of a midsized building that overlooked the trashed and graffiti emblazoned streets of the projects. He still remembered his purpose in coming to Chicago so he quickly dismissed the sense of sentimentality.

"Alright, what the hell should I do now" Miguel wondered as he continued to scan the streets and rooftops with the various vision modes of his modified sunglasses. "Maybe I should go see if Benelli's still in town"

Suddenly Miguel heard heavy footsteps pounding across the rooftops and heading towards his general location. Looking up he saw the digital image of a cloaked Yautja moving across a row of rooftops across the street as if the black warrior himself was pursuing him.

Miguel scanned the running Yautja and his heart leaped. According to the scan it was Ga'Knash, the same exile who might provide him with the lead that he needed.

Alive with excitement Miguel activated his cloak began to pursue from the rooftops that ran parallel on the other side of the street. He was so focused on chasing Ga'Knash that he failed to notice the second pursuer following the Yautja over the rooftops a couple hundred feet behind.

"This guy runs pretty damn fast" José thought as he launched himself onto the next rooftop. The Yautja had turned himself invisible but his outline still showed in its displacement of the light around it. Also he couldn't hide the smell of his pheromones that José's enhanced sinuses could easily follow.

Despite the impressive speed of his quarry José could tell that he was gaining. Suddenly another cloaked form appeared out of nowhere and smashed into the fleeing Yautja as he attempted to clear another gap between two buildings.

José skidded to a halt as both forms fell into the alley below. "What the fuck was that, Another Yautja?" José thought as he carefully peered over the edge and saw that the Yautja he had been chasing was no longer cloaked and another cloaked figure was now standing over him.

"Who the fuck is that?" José thought as he sniffed the air again to discover that this newcomer smelled of both human and Yautja, on top of that there was an ominous familiarity that he couldn't quite place.

Moving along the roof top José silently dropped down into the shadows on the far side alley. "I don't know who that guy is but if it's a Yautja it can't be good news" José thought as he drew his S&W .500 revolver and began creeping silently towards the two figures.

"Alright Ga'Knash, you have information that I want" Miguel growled as he pinned the bad blood up against the ground and held his maul to the bad blood's throat to ensure that he stayed that way.

"Who are you? You are equipped as a Yautja, yet you do not appear to be Yautja" Ga'Knash grunted.

"I am one who hunts you from anonymity and turns from prey to hunter" Miguel said mockingly as he deactivated his cloak and switched off the vision mode of sunglasses.

"You are a member of the arbitrators?!" Ga'Knash said his voice incredulous with disbelief.

"Something like that, although I don't exactly adhere to the same codes, so if you answer me honestly I might let you live" Miguel said, deeply emphasizing the word might.

Miguel stopped as he heard someone quietly moving towards them. Keeping his maul trained on the bad blood he swiftly drew out one of his D. Eagles and aimed it towards the shadows from which the sound of the footsteps emanated.

All the sudden a massive revolver barrel appeared from the shadows. Miguel was surprised but he held his aim on the shadowy figure behind the barrel. "Who are you, show yourself?" Miguel called out, challenging the man to an open duel.

As the figure slowly stepped out from the shadows Miguel took a good look at his challenger and almost dropped his weapon in utter surprise.

"Impossible, you…you're supposed to be dead, my father"

Far from the battle, in the corporate section of New York City a suited man approached his boss. "Boss, we think that we may have spotted signs of one of the creatures near Chicago."

"Indeed" man replied as he took a puff on an expensive imported Cuban Cigar. "Send out an armed retrieval team, I don't want these predators slipping through my fingers again"

**I hope you enjoyed this most recent installment and I will get the next chapter out as quickly as I can. Reviews always help! Thank you **


	7. Intertwining Destinies

**No I'm not dead, but I have been traveling in other countries for quite a while with quite literally no internet access (which can almost drive a person crazy in the present day). Anyway I will try to get more updates up as soon as possible if any people who originally read these stories are still around I apologize for the massive delays. **

**To new readers I hope you enjoy and please review as I do take each review into serious consideration writing a story.**

**Intertwining Destinies**

"How the fuck are you still alive?" Miguel said completely stunned as he slowly lowered his D. Eagle.

"I'll explain that later, for right now it appears as though you are busy with something else" his father replied indicating the bad blood that was still pinned under Miguel.

"Right, hold on a second then" Miguel said as he turned his attention back to the bad blood. "Tell me everything you know about Sha'Rol and this bad blood organization I keep hearing about, if I believe you are telling the truth then I might let you go"

Ga'Knash hesitated for a moment before his shoulders slumped and the look of slight defiance he had previously shown went out of him. "All right, I'll talk but how do I know you won't kill me afterwards?"

"I guess you don't, but I work in the gray areas of the honor code so I have the capability to be a lot more merciful than the general honor bound arbitrators" Miguel said as he held the maul even closer to Ga'Knash's throat.

"I guess I have really don't have anything to lose then" Ga'Knash replied in a low growl as he turned his arm over and revealed his mark. "Alright Ooman arbitrator, the name that the organization calls itself when translated into your language is the Brotherhood of the Fallen"

Miguel felt a wave of elation wash over him. Finally he had a name that he could attach to this mysterious force. However he couldn't let up he had to keep Ga'Knash talking before the Yautja changed his mind.

"Who leads these bad bloods?" Miguel continued his demeanor unflinching.

"There is a single leader and a second in command who serves as the brotherhood's vanguard, but I have never seen them personally"

"Who gives you your orders then? Be mindful of what can happen if I believe that you are lying to me" Miguel said as his suspicions rose.

"We operate in individual cells that are led by a cell leader who gives the orders to us; they are overseen by several generals, I believe that you have run into some of them before" Ga'Knash said as his voice trilled in amusement.

"What do you mean?" Miguel said his voice growing cold.

"I finally recognize you" Hrak'Ni said moving his head so that the eyes of his mask bored into Miguel's. You are the rumored Young Fury, and we know that you were the one who actually killed generals Black Heart and Hrak'Ni"

"So, they figured out it was me" Miguel thought as he was suddenly gripped with worry. If they knew that it was he that had killed two of the bad blood generals then what else could they know about?

"So how many members are there total?" Miguel said shifting his thoughts back to the pinned Ga'Knash.

"Of that I am uncertain; in order to maintain secrecy most cells are not in contact with each other unless a general calls a few of them together in the event of emergency and only our top leader know for certain" Ga'Knash said still trilling with amusement. "However my estimate is that there are a few hundred, but I believe you may have decreased that number somewhat"

"Indeed I might have, this organization is as I predicted then" Miguel said his gaze darting quickly to his father who stood as placidly as if he was just listening to dinner chit-chat.

"Maybe it is, there has been talk among the ranks of our organization of something big happening but they do not know what yet, that is about all I know" Ga'Knash replied now sounding completely defeated.

"Fine, then I only have more one question left for you to answer" Miguel said as his gaze once again bored into the eye sockets of Ga'Knash's mask.

"And what is that Ooman?"

"Is your former leader Sha'Rol involved?" Miguel said watching closely for a reaction.

Ga'Knash's head jerked up so suddenly that Miguel was worried that his blade would shear off the bad blood's head. However it only cut a slight bit and from the reaction Miguel could easily tell that he was completely aware about what role his former leader played in this bad blood saga.

"So you do know that he is involved and please remember that your life is on the line so I would recommend you be truthful"

For the first time Ga'Knash actually seemed worried and remorseful when he spoke. "The leader cleared the path for him to rise to power, my exile and loss of honor was all part of their plan to keep me quiet if I objected, and I joined to have some form of recourse from my shame. Sha'Rol is power hungry but beyond the role of a mole I do not know what his purpose is"

"So you were the sacrificial lamb" Miguel said as an idea began to form in his mind. "If that is the case then maybe if you help me further, I may just be able to have your honor restored to you"

"What is that Ooman?" Ga'Knash asked the suspicion evident in his voice.

"Eventually your generals and leaders will have convene, help me find out where these bad bloods are hiding and I believe that my word to the ancients will be enough to have your honor restored to you" Miguel said as he got off of the bad blood and paused to take in the atmosphere of conflicting emotions that now emanated from Ga'Knash.

It took a long while but finally Ga'Knash nodded in agreement and transferred his wrist-comp code into Miguel's. "Very well Ooman, the general will call each cell of this region soon at his command post individually and when he does I will give you his location"

"Sounds like a deal now I would go before you are missed" Miguel said as he turned his gaze back towards the mouth of the alley.

Ga'Knash didn't need any more encouragement and quickly activated his cloaking device before moving off into the night.

"What the hell is going on? Why does Young Fury smell as a combination of human and Yautja?" José thought as he watched the exchange between his son and the Yautja with confusion. Surprised would have been a severe understatement when he had first discovered that the figure had been his son. Hell, he had almost been tempted to shoot himself in the foot just to make sure that what he was seeing was really happening.

As he watched the Yautja turn and move off into the night he could see Young Fury turn to face him. Even thought his eyes were masked José could feel a powerful anger and joy emanate from him.

"Why was I told you were dead" Miguel asked struggling to keep his voice steady as he faced his father and first mentor.

"That is a very long and interesting story, one that I will share with you, for I believe that you have a very interesting story to tell me as well" José replied his tone stoic. "However, right now I believe that we should go, for more of those Yautja could come soon"

"How does he know the name of their species?" Miguel thought his emotions shifting wildly from anger to confusion as he followed his father out of the alleyway and down the street.

Miguel had been prepared for many twists of fate during this investigation but this was too much. Not only had his presumed dead father reappeared but besides the appearance of his hair, that Miguel assumed was dye, there was something different about his father, something primal and shadowy that was familiar to him, but Miguel couldn't quite place what it was.

"I guess that I will find out what happened soon enough anyway" Miguel thought as the pair began walking into the old industrial section of the city.

"So" José said turning to face Miguel as the two of them entered one of the old abandoned lots.

"Now that we are in a place where there is much less of a chance of being seen or overheard, I think that we both should come to know what has happened during our absences from each other's lives"

"I guess I'll go first then" Miguel said as he sighed inwardly as he began to recount his past after his father had disappeared.

"Damn this certainly is a tale that rivals my own adventure, I always thought that something was different about him in any case" José thought as he stood quietly listening to his son move through his past including his crossed blood and his time spent among the Yautja fighting their more unsavory battles for them.

"I see that you have been busy in my long absence then" José said as Miguel finished out his story. "Rising amongst the Yautja through battle alongside Benelli of all people, then having it all snatched away by some shadowy figure"

"It is the truth!" Miguel shot back, fresh anger rising in his chest. "And as for your absence, what could justify my father and my teacher abandoning me like he did!"

"First, I have no doubt about your story even if I hadn't witnessed your little interrogation" José replied his voice remaining stoic. "Second, I did not abandon you, at least, not willingly"

"Yeah? So how the hell is that possible?" Miguel said raising an eyebrow in slight confusion.

"I will tell you soon, but since your understandable anger with me is over lost time then I say we catch up on the last few years that we have not seen each other"

"What the fuck do you mean by that?" Miguel said a feeling of excitement beginning to course through his veins

"Show me what you have learned from your battles amongst the Yautja, fight me!" José said throwing aside his trench coat to reveal the hilt and scabbard of an intricately crafted Talwar Saber.

"Like I said, I am a hybrid of the bloodlines of both humans and Yautja, the result of this has made me stronger and faster than a normal human" Miguel said throwing aside his own coat and drawing his mauls off of his back and into a fighting stance.

"Do not tell me that your time among the Yautja has given you their fool's hubris my son" José replied his hand resting on the hilt of his sword. "Remember that I taught you never to sell your opponent short because in what we do, there is always a reason why they have survived this long"

"I remember, in fact I still have scars from when I have almost forgot it" Miguel replied keeping his stance solid and his eyes locked on his father.

"Good, then I'll hammer home that point" José said drawing his sword so rapidly that Miguel's eyes could barely follow it. Miguel eyed the blade his father held before him and gave out a gasp of shock as he recognized the dark black metal that shone in the light of the full moon.

"Void Steel!" Miguel said quickly recovering from his initial shock. "Where the hell did you find that?"

"You are not the only one who has been on a journey my son" José said assuming a fighting stance of his own. "Nor are you the only one who has been through a genetic change".

Several light years away the image of a gigantic Yautja appeared on a holographic projector located deep within the large inner-chamber of a fortress.

"What is it?" the cloaked figure said turning to gaze at the communication.

"We may have problem, I believe that I had informed you about Young Fury's exit before we could get to him" the image said plainly.

"You did"

"Well" The gigantic figure continued. "We have some spotty information as well as rumors that he may have been trying to find our base of operations by tracking down our operatives on earth"

"Interesting, he certainly is persistent" The cloaked figured growled quietly. "I guess then we will have to begin. Order all of our operatives to return to base even the ones in the far-flung regions of the galaxy"

"Is it wise to begin without the proper stranglehold on the council in place great leader?"

"Just follow my orders and begin to consolidate our forces, it would be far more disastrous to be exposed before we are ready to strike than to make our move without all the safety features of our plan in place" the figure growled as it abruptly severed the communication.


	8. The Agent vs The Warrior

**I'm back again, it has been one frustration after another getting these posted (This time my computer crashed and destroyed my files) but I'm still going and I will finish this story one way or another.**

The Agent of the Arbitrators vs. the Warrior of the Queen

Miguel didn't waste any time and charged towards José swinging his mauls in a vicious tornado technique hoping to quickly force his father back and unbalance him before the fight truly started like he had done to defeat several other opponents in the past.

His hope proved unfounded however as José quickly stepped backwards and easily parried his blows with a quick succession of slashes that Miguel could scarcely follow.

"You'll have to do much better than that to defeat me boy" José said icily as he stepped forward with an upwards diagonal slash that could have cleaved Miguel in two.

Miguel countered with a low block but José kept moving and less than a second after the two weapons met José was coming from above with a downward vertical slash bearing strait down on Miguel's head.

Moving with all the speed he possessed Miguel blocked upward with his left maul catching the blow just in time causing the two weapons to meet with such force that Miguel felt the impact run down the length of his arm.

"Shit! How the fuck has he become so strong!" Miguel thought holding his guard steady as he and José contested their strength. Moving quickly Miguel collapsed his guard and slashed inwards with his right maul aiming for the legs causing his father to jump backwards with blurring speed.

Miguel wasn't sure why or how but somehow his father had become a far more capable warrior than Miguel had remembered, moving with speed and agility that would put even the most nimble of Yautja to shame. "Guess that means I'm going to have to pull out all the stops or I really could be the one to lose, he fights as well as the greatest elders".

"Damn that was close; I almost lost my fucking leg!" José thought wildly as he backed away short distance. "I need to remember to thank the queen for the added abilities of her species the next time I see her"

"His time and training amongst the Yautja has indeed made him a far better fighter than he used to be" José thought as he began to sidestep to his left, raising his sword into a fighting position as he did so. Miguel mirrored his movements in the opposite direction as the two began to circling each other like a pair of caged lions.

"If I'm not careful I could the one to lose here today" José thought as he continued to circle cautiously looking for a good opening. As he glanced at Miguel's expression he could see that his son also did not want to rush in for an attack half-cocked either.

"Good my son you did indeed learn from your training and experiences well, I guess then it would not be fair if I didn't fight with everything I have" José thought as both of the combatants let out a wild war scream and charged at each other with blurring speed, clashing together in a whirlwind of black steel.

Miguel flipped one of his mauls around and swiftly moved forward in a stabbing motion towards José's midsection.

Acting with equal swiftness José brought his talwar around and shoved the lunge out of the way before transition back into a downward diagonal swing only to have it stopped by an upward block from Miguel's second maul.

Following another series of swift moves and counter moves José and Miguel both disengaged and retreated for a second time.

"It seems that we are at a stalemate" Miguel called to his father as they again shadowed each other's movements.

"Then it is time to break this pointless deadlock, this will be the final bout of this fight" José replied quickly.

Without hesitation both Miguel and José charged full force at each other their weapons raised and gleaming from the light of the moon.

The two warriors met yet again and José slashed downwards with blurring speed. Miguel, moving with equal agility raised his mauls into an x block which caught the sword with a loud clang.

Without missing a beat Miguel disengaged one of his mauls from the block and began to swing it at José's legs. His father anticipated the move however and brought his sword out from Miguel's guard and blocked low with such speed that he caught Miguel's strike before it was complete.

"Fuck!" Miguel thought wildly as the maul flew out of his hand. In a last desperate maneuver he brought his remaining maul down as hard as he could and as he did José countered with a major strike of his own.

The immense force of the two weapons coming together caused both of them to leave the hands of their owners with a final vicious clang.

"So, it would appear that we are currently at a stalemate, do you seek to continue?" José asked calmly as he walked over to retrieve his sword while Miguel did the same for his Mauls.

"No I think I have gotten over my past grievances in the course of that fight, still it isn't like me not to finish a confrontation we should have a rematch again sometime" Miguel replied placing the mauls on his back and connecting them to his armor.

"Indeed, another time will do" José said as he sheathed his sword.

"I have to admit I have scarcely seen a Yautja fight that well, how did you become so strong since the last time we met?" Miguel asked curiously.

"That is quite a story, one that I feel you have the right to hear for in many ways it is similar to your story" José replied as he began to recount the events of the past couple of years which had led him to this point.

Far from the city of Chicago on the Yautja home world a pair of shadowy figures moved silently through the deserted back alleys.

"How many of those trusted have you convinced to come?" Gro'Kesh asked quietly as he continued to move at a brisk pace.

"A few, it's difficult to know who exactly to trust these days" Si'Mara replied keeping in stride with the much larger Yautja.

"Indeed it is, for my part I have convinced a decent number of those I trust to agree to a secret meeting" Gro'Kesh responded as the pair turned a corner and continued heading deeper into some of the less desirable areas of the city.

"This doesn't feel right to me" Si'Mara replied a look of deep concern forming under her mask. "I feel like I should have gone with my mate in order to help him find what he is looking for instead of falsely denouncing him before the council."

"He has proven over and over again that he can handle himself as well as those matters" Gro'Kesh said with a sympathetic growl "and I am sorry about what you had to do to avoid council scrutiny but I believe you will be helping Young Fury far more by helping gathering allies to stand beside him for the endgame"

"I suppose you're right, the time will eventually come when I will stand beside him for the final fight but for now we must garner support" Si'Mara said as the pair approached a fairly benign looking door.

Moving quickly Gro'Kesh glanced around and rapped on the door in coded pattern causing it to open and allow the two to enter. As they entered, all eyes in the room turned to look at them.

Si'Mara quickly glanced around at the group of arbitrators in attendance and could feel their apprehension even beneath their masks as Gro'Kesh moved to the center of the group and signaled that he was ready to begin.

The arbitrators fell silent as Gro'Kesh began to speak in a low yet subtly powerful growl. "Everyone in this room knows why they have been called here, my agent has been labeled as a bad blood without consultation of the high agent and forced to flee but not before an unidentified group of Yautja tried to abduct him, I have spent some time hacking into several of the suspected ancients personal records and a number of them have led me to the conclusion that Young Fury may have right about this bad blood organization all along".

As Gro'Kesh stopped talking trills of conversation rippled throughout the ranks of the assembled arbitrators as they fully grasped the magnitude of the situation.

"It's not as though we haven't had our individual suspicions on this matter but I don't think that any of us ever imagined that it would come to this, after all we are literally talking about war on an unprecedented level for this era in our society" said one of the arbitrators as he locked gazes with Gro'Kesh.

"It is what must be done" Si'Mara said speaking up for the first time causing all eyes to turn towards her. "Right now my mate has fled to take up a fight for the same society that banished him, a fight that many of the Yautja have turned a blind eye to, a fight that could hold the fate of Yautja society as we know it in the balance. If these bad bloods succeed in their coup than the Yautja home world and clans could be plunged into a dark age of bad blood control"

"I see, then what is it that you suggest we do about it" another arbitrator asked solemnly.

This time it was Gro'Kesh that spoke up. "Young Fury has been on their trail and I believe that he will find them and the high ancient Zo'Chi has been gathering together the clans that are most loyal to him to form a fighting force for the battle ahead".

"So where do we fit into all this?" the arbitrator said quickly.

"It seems that they were planning to paralyze the council by activating a number of agents either within it or close to it, therefore I need a force here that I can trust to carry out the arrest certain members of the council when this fight comes to fruition, can I count on you do this" Gro'Kesh said before being greeted by roars of agreement. "Good, then keep watch over them but don't move until I give you the signal, now let's get moving for the sake of our people!"

"So they crossed you with the kiande amedha? No wonder you've gotten so much stronger" Miguel said gazing at moon as his father finished telling his story. "I think I remember hearing about that clan being slaughtered, you'll be glad to know that the Yautja decided that the clan was being dishonorable and they will not seek retribution for the incident."

"Indeed that is good news for the hive" José replied as he turned to gaze at the moon as well. "So, what happens now?"

"Well, now that I have my mole that will get me the location of their base so I guess now I collect the rest of the agents" Miguel said shifting his gaze over to look at José.

"So when do we leave?" José asked turning so that he locked eyes with his son.

"We, you're coming with me?" Miguel asked uncertainly.

"You really have to have ask a question that stupid? Of course I'm going with you this is my fight as well, even though I have no love for the Yautja the scenario you have described sounds like it would affect far more than just them" José replied

"You got a point there, alright then let's go get Benelli" Miguel said as he turned and began to walk out of the lot.

"You want to bring Benelli along on this as well?" José said as he began to follow Miguel.

"I need all the help I can get at this point and Benelli has faced down these guys before, so let's go get and round up the rest of those agents" Miguel replied as the two of them walked out of the dark lot and began heading back towards the brightly lit streets of downtown.


	9. Black Ops

**Black Ops**

"**Halt you two!"** a voice suddenly called out as Miguel and José began to head for the exit of the industrial district. "**Put your weapons down and surrender!**"

"Shit, who the fuck are these guys!" Miguel cursed as he drew and aimed one of his D. Eagles in one hand at the heavily armed men in black S.W.A.T style fatigues who had suddenly emerged from hiding and blocked their way while he prepped his Yautja shuriken in the other. Miguel looked over to his father who had just as quickly produced his S&W 500 from his coat.

Moving quickly Miguel activated the Yautja modified sunglasses he had been wearing since the pursuit of Ga'Knash and shifted his vision mode so that he could see the infrared signatures of their attackers. From where he stood he counted eight with two men on rooftops across the street and the remaining six in front of them but he was sure that this wasn't the whole team.

"Again, lay down your weapons or we will shoot, in the name of the company this is your last chance!"

"Ah fuck! These corporate assholes must have been trailing us for a while" José muttered under his breath his aim never wavering from his target.

"Good to know that I have even more idiots pining for my hide than I originally thought" Miguel growled as he held his own weapons steady. The thought of surrender never crossed his mind, he had decided long ago that if was going out he was going go out blazing.

Suddenly two shots rang out killing both of the corporate gunmen stationed on the rooftops.

Both Miguel and José moved immediately and as the remaining six men recovered from their initial shock and began to raise their assault rifles Miguel's shuriken severed the head of the man in the center of their line just as José opened fire with his revolver.

The remaining men dived for cover behind steel dumpsters and abandoned vehicles but one of them didn't make it as José's heavy .500 bullet caught him square in the chest and passed directly through his ballistic vest causing him to crumple to the ground, he was dead instantly.

Quickly catching his shuriken as it returned Miguel pulled out his second D. Eagle from the holster strapped to his armor and began to fire on his attackers who ducked back behind cover as both his and José bullets flew towards them.

"These guys are definitely professionals" José called over to Miguel as he took cover to avoid errant shots from assault rifle fire.

"I have an idea, cover me!" Miguel called out as he activated his cloak

"Don't worry I gotcha covered!" José yelled back as he reloaded and began firing back at his attackers who were forced to duck for cover once again.

As the heads of their attackers went down once Miguel charged through the center going right past their positions. When they turned to see what had happened Miguel was ready. With the speed and precision of a competitive shooter Miguel raised his D. Eagles and fired both in rapid succession quickly dispatching 2 more of their assailants.

Coming out from cover the remaining two men emerged from their positions to try and get Miguel's cloaked figure in their sights but in their haste to attack Miguel they forgot about José and were quickly dropped by two more shots from his massive revolver.

"As if I didn't have enough problems with the bad bloods, now I have human assholes after me as well" Miguel said frustrated as he examined the bodies to make sure they were dead.

"Don't dwell on them, you have bigger issues and besides, they will disappear once we have left this planet" José said holstering his revolver and moving swiftly to stand beside Young Fury.

"Yeah, I guess you're right, still, who fired those other shots?" Miguel asked scanning the abandoned street.

"That would be me, I figured you two would be getting into some kind of trouble so figured I needed to be around to babysit" said a figure as he dropped off a fire escape with a scoped M14 rifle hanging off his back via a strap.

Switching off and removing his sunglasses Miguel looked at the figure and sighed with relief.

"It's to see you again Benelli and good to know that at least a couple people in this universe will still fight alongside me" Miguel said as Benelli came to stand in front of them.

"Good to see you again as well, it has been a while I believe" Benelli said quietly.

"Since the warehouse, I assume nothing much has happened" Miguel replied

"Same shit different year, still we can't hang around for long, these fuckers are crawling all over the place and this little shootout of ours probably has them converging on this place right now, don't worry though my car is just across the next alley!" Benelli said as the three of them turned and hurried through the alley.

"When the hell did you get a dark blue Jeep Cherokee?" Miguel asked as got into the back of the jeep from which the two back seats had been removed and a thick, large blanket was covering most of the back area.

"About 6 months ago, I got it when I started taking a street course on how to be an evasive getaway driver" Benelli responded.

José climbed into the passenger seat with Benelli taking the driver seat. As he started the jeep up and pulled away Benelli looked into his rearview mirror and began cursing wildly.

Miguel turned and was immediately aware of the reason why Benelli was so pissed off. Four large and menacing looking black GMCs had turned a corner and were heading straight for them.

Benelli didn't hesitate as he gunned the engine causing the much smaller SUV causing it tp launch out the end of the street with the black vehicles in hot pursuit.

"These guys sure are persistent" Miguel said as he smashed out the back window of the jeep.

Miguel looked and cursed under his breath as he saw a man rising out of the sunroof of the lead GMC hefting an M4 carbine with him. Moving quickly Miguel drew one of his D. Eagles, took aim, and fired just as the shooter was beginning to aim his weapon. Two of Miguel's bullets found their mark one caught the man under the chin with second going right between his eyebrows.

Miguel shifted his aim and fired into the driver side windshield of the vehicle as the sunroof shooter collapsed back into the vehicle. Miguel cursed as he watched his bullets just ping off the front of the glass.

"Hey Benelli, they're using bullet resistant glass, you got something heavier!" Miguel called out as Benelli sped around a corner causing the Jeep to drift slightly.

"Just who do you think I am? Of course I got something heavier just throw off the blanket" Benelli replied holding the distance between the vehicles.

Yanking away the thick blanket and tossing it out the window Miguel was relieved to see an arsenal worthy of a Green Beret unit at his disposal. As he loaded an ammo box into an M240 Miguel looked up and cursed again as more men emerged from the sunroofs of the other vehicles and started firing.

"You know after all this bullshit is over I think I'm going into retirement!" Miguel called out as he mounted his M240 onto the broken back window frame and begin to return fire at their pursuers.

"I can relate to that" José and Benelli replied in unison as José reached back, grabbed a SPAS-12 shotgun and began to hastily load it.

The vehicles exchanged vicious fire as they sped at top speed down street after nearly deserted street in the dead of night. Taking aim Miguel fired off most of an ammo box into the windshield finally causing it to shatter. His view clear Miguel opened up on the vehicle killing both the driver and passenger. The damaged SUV groaned as it veered off the road, stopping sharply as it collided head on with a light pole.

"One down three to go!" Miguel called out as he reloaded and continued to exchange fire with the three remaining pursuers.

"You know I never thought I'd ever say this in my life but where are the fucking cops!" Benelli yelled exasperatedly as he dodged a slow moving car.

"Probably paid off, I think I know these guys and I'm pretty sure they got enough cash to buy silence" Jose replied sticking his head out the window and firing a round out of his shotgun.

"I hope you have plan for when this shit-storm is over" Benelli replied holding the petal to floor as the jeep skidded onto four lane main road.

"We're getting farther away from here than you can possibly imagine but we can't head towards my ship until we shake these assholes" Miguel said as he fired off another burst killing the remaining sunroof shooters.

"Look sharp guys they're going to box us in!" José said as he watched two of the GMCs spread out on the road from the third and began to close the gap until the two were nearly parallel with the jeep.

"My son you take the vehicle riding our ass, I'll take out the one on my side!" José said quickly as he stuck his SPAS-12 out the window and began to pump round after round into the GMC.

José grinned with satisfaction as one of the slugs blew out the GMC's left side tire causing it to swerve away from them as the driver fought to maintain control. Veering over onto the sidewalk the GMC driver lost control completely causing the vehicle to flip over and immediately burst into flame.

"That's one" José called out.

"And there goes another!" Miguel called out in reply as the damage to the rear vehicles engine by Miguel's multitude of bullets caused the car to lose distance before finally dying completely.

"Get the fuck off my Jeep asshole!" Benelli cursed angrily as the final SUV driving parallel to them began to slam repeated into their vehicle.

As the final GMC began to come in for another slam the passenger side window rolled down and the passenger began to aim his MP5 right at Benelli.

"Big mistake moron!" Benelli called out with evil grin on his face.

Moving with speed that impressed even José and Miguel, Benelli whipped out a Glock 18 with an extended magazine from between his seat and the door and fired it point blank on full auto into the open window of the GMC riddling both the passenger and the driver with bullets. Both men slumped in their seats as the final pursuing vehicle veered away them and crashed head on into an office building.

"All right I think we're in the clear, we should head to ship before more of those assholes show up or the cops finally decide that they've had enough of this spectacle" Miguel said removing his M240 from its firing position.

"Sounds like a plan to me, so where do go now?" Benelli asked.

"I hid my ship outside of the city just head south from there I'll…" Miguel broke off as his wrist computer alerted him of an incoming message. Activating it Miguel was surprised to see the holographic image of Ga'Knash.

"I did not expect to hear from you so soon" Miguel said

"I am currently alone but I must be brief" Ga'Knash said talking rapidly. "The supreme leader has called for all operatives to return back to the home base to which coordinates have been provided to the cell leaders including the one that I belong to".

Miguel could feel his excitement rising wildly as Ga'Knash continued to speak very rapidly in a low tone of voice.

"My cell leader is currently having some trouble in getting all his members together so he will be delayed for a while when it comes to leaving here, in order to get your hands on the coordinates you will have to go after him"

"That isn't an issue" Miguel replied calmly as he indicated the direction of his ship for Benelli. "Just give me the location where the son of a bitch is holed up and I'll get those coordinates if I have to slice off his arm"

"It may not be as easy as that, like I said he is having difficulty but the group is gathering so it would be an impossibility for you to this alone, my cell leader, Ra'Markesh is also a very formidable warrior" Ga'Knash growled his head swiveling wildly to ensure that no one was listening.

"Don't worry I can manage that problem, also I need one more thing from you before I guarantee the restoration of your honor" Miguel said

"And what is that Arbitrator?" Ga'Knash replied

"I need you to survive and go to the bad blood base in preparation for our final battle but we can't let the ones in charge become suspicious that I let you survive the attack" Miguel continued glancing up to ensure that Benelli was still on the correct heading.

"And how do you propose that I deceive them like that" Ga'Knash growled his consternation evident.

"You said that all cells have been called back to the home base and that some members were having trouble returning, have all the cells on Earth been made aware of each other?" Miguel asked, his thoughts racing.

Ga'Knash nodded to affirm that they indeed were.

"I want you to volunteer to go with one or two other members to go to another cell under the pretext of gaining assistance in finding missing members. Once our attack is confirmed the rest of the bad blood cells will likely withdraw quickly in order to avoid more possible attacks" Miguel said as he began to picture in his mind's eye just how the whole operation would come together "I want you to be with one of those other cells when they do, do you think you can do that?"

Ga'Knash nodded once again to affirm that he could.

"It will be as you say Ooman Arbitrator, I must go now for someone is coming but I have uploaded the hiding place of the cell to you, there are around fifteen members in our small group" Ga'Knash replied before quickly shutting off his transmission and causing his holographic image to disappear.

Leaning back Miguel relaxed in wave of relief. Finally after years of chasing dead ends he was now in a position to prove his innocence and bring down the bad blood organization that threatened the very foundation of the Yautja way of life.

"So I guess that means we now have destination in mind?" José looking back at his son for the first time since the holographic image has started to speak.

"Looks like but first we need to assault a Yautja den to get what we need" Miguel replied as the Jeep began to enter the area where he had hidden his ship.

"Well that should be fun" Benelli said curtly.

"We're going to need some more help for this one because we're going to have to head into an area that they know well, fortunately part of my job while I was here was to rally some select humans to support our effort so this should be a good test to see if their ready for the big time" Miguel responded indicating the area where his ship was.

As the jeep pulled up to the indicated spot the three of them got out of the Jeep and Miguel typed a sequence into his wrist computer causing the ship to come out of its cloaked state. Benelli stared at the ship in amazement clearly baffled by the sudden appearance of Miguel's ship while José just looked on making it clear that this experience was not new to him.

"Hell of piece of hardware you got there Miguel, this company vehicle a perk of the job?" Benelli asked half jokingly.

"Something like that, it's been modified for my job so it's invisible even to Yautja scanners" Miguel replied as he turned to look at his father. "Speaking of Yautja vessels you had told me that you commandeered one when you headed back for earth?"

"Yes I did" José replied

"What did you do with?" Miguel asked slightly concerned, after all one of the last things he wanted was for a ship like that to get into the hands of the wrong people.

"Me and couple other survivors self destructed it outside a remote Alaskan town before I caught a ride back to Chicago, so don't worry about it" José said clapping a reassuring hand on Miguel's shoulder.

"Well that is definitely a relief" Miguel said letting out an audible before turning his attention to Benelli who was still standing around with a bemused look on his face. "Alright let's load your gear and our asses moving before we miss our opportunity".

Benelli nodded to show that he understood and the trio spent the next 15 minutes unloading a large stock of firearms and ammunition out of Benelli's Jeep and loading it onto the ship. As they carried their final load into the ship Miguel closed the access ramp and trio headed towards the cockpit.

"Well, onwards and outwards" Miguel thought as he sat in the pilot seat and prepped the engines.

"You guys strapped in behind me?" he asked as he felt the ships engines hum to life.

"I'm all set" José affirmed from one of the two co-pilot seats behind Miguel.

"I'm all good here now let's blow this joint and take the fight to these fuckers" Benelli said full of enthusiasm for what was about to happen.

"My thoughts exactly" Miguel said pulling the ship into a hover and cloaking it in final preparation for take. Moving with purpose Miguel threw the lever down and the engines roared fully to life causing the ship to shoot away from the ground and into the atmosphere at incredible speed.

"Woooohooooo!" Benelli called out in exhilaration as the ship broke through the atmosphere began to take up a low earth orbit.

"So what do we do now?" José asked as he un-strapped himself and rose from his seat.

"Now we find the agents" Miguel replied activating the ship's autopilot as he gazed at the breathtaking view of the Earth's oceans and landmasses.


	10. Rallying the Agents

**Rallying the Agents**

"Find the agents? You mean the people who do the same job for the Yautja that you do?" José asked as the three left the cockpit and entered the ship's small and cramped conference area.

"Yes, I was the first of a program that has been successfully expanded over the last couple years and now there are a good number of them now operating on Earth, now our job is to gather them together" Miguel responded as he removed his coat and black Yautja armor before setting it in a corner.

"Sounds like plan, so where do where do start?" Benelli asked as he sat in one of the conference seats.

"I already have the list of names and locations of the program's most skilled agents, now all we got to do is go and get them" Miguel said as he brought up a holographic image of the Earth.

Typing out a sequence on his wrist computer Miguel and his two compatriots watched as around a dozen lights began to appear at various points on the holographic surface of the planet.

"Nice laser light show so which one are we headed to first?" José asked looking over the various points on the planet.

"First person up on our pick up list is in Japan, I figure that starting there should put us far enough away from those assholes chasing us for awhile to let the heat die down slightly" Miguel said as the holographic image changed to a map of the Japanese islands. "We will come back into the atmosphere and land when the sun goes down in Japan just to be extra safe, we'll then stash the ship in the mountains, wait until morning and infiltrate the target city from there".

"So then, who's the first unlucky bastard that we're bringing along on this grand crusade of ours?" Benelli asked with a smirk.

"According to this her family name is Fujimori and her given name is Asumi, her age is 17 and she lives in Nagoya" Miguel said as he pulled up a holographic image for identification.

"They employed a fucking Japanese school girl in this scheme of theirs?" José asked slightly confused.

"Better change that title to action girl" Miguel said as he brought up the unofficial and unmodified records kept on agents only by the high ancient and given to him before he fled to earth by the high ancient Zo'Chi. "She's your classic katana user, it's been only 4 months since she completed her final qualifying trial in the kiande amedha chiva and since then she's killed 5 fairly notorious bad bloods".

"So I guess what you're saying is take precautions and appearances can be deceiving, I can accept that" Benelli said shifting his gaze from the hologram back to Miguel. "So how are we supposed to find this person?"

"I got an address from the records and it seems like she provided it herself so pack light and be careful after all the last thing we need is to stir up trouble here and have to run from even more idiots" Miguel replied as he switched the hologram off, gathered up his armor, and began heading to his personal quarters while the other two headed for the cargo bay to prep their own gear.

As Miguel entered his quarters he placed his armor on his bed. Turning away from the armor Miguel once again donned his long black duster, shorts, tank top and modified sunglasses before he moved to his weapons locker in order to select his weapons for the contact job. He knew that for these particular jobs he would need to move light and maintain a low profile so apart from the always present wrist blades and computer he decided to bring only his two Yautja shurikens and twin Desert Eagles with a few spare magazines.

After a few more hours the ship began to reenter that atmosphere and when he started to feel the vibrations of the reentry process Miguel began to head down to the cargo bay in preparation for landing. As Miguel entered he found both Benelli and his father checking their weapons.

José had chosen to retain his void steel talwar sword underneath his long coat but instead of the massive S&W 500 he usually carried he had opted instead to carry a sawn-off Remington 870 shotgun hanging from strap beneath his coat to provide quick access.

"Look what we got here it's the badass long coat boys" Benelli remarked sarcastically as he loaded magazines into a pair of 45. Caliber AMT Hardballer longslides and stashed them in cross-draw fashion underneath a worn out leather biker jacket.

"Only real way to conceal my equipment to humans and my identity to the bad bloods, if I used a Yautja cloaking device they'd be onto me instantly" Miguel said as he felt the ships auto pilot land and heard the electric crackling of the ship temporarily deactivating its cloak.

"All right then, let's find this agent of yours and be on our way" José said quietly as the ramp opened and the trio headed out towards the city.

"This is the address in the records? No fucking way!" Benelli said as the trio stood at the entrance of what appeared to be a large, well maintained, and high class private all-girls academy.

"Doesn't matter, this is what she gave so this is where we have to start looking" Miguel replied taking in the fairly high walls and front gate.

"Still though I thought shit like this only existed in cheesy manga" Benelli replied.

"Disregarding how a 40 something year old man would know that, how are we going to get in?" José asked his eyes scanning the perimeter.

"Easy we walk right over the wall and open the gate for Benelli" Miguel replied with a grin that José returned if only ever so slightly.

Moving with the agility of their mixed blood José and Miguel easily scaled the twelve foot wall in a single leap and landed quietly on the other side. Crouching down the pair moved swiftly towards the security booth while remaining out of sight.

"Sorry about this" Miguel muttered as he drew back his fist and drove his fist into the guard's face just as he began to turn. The guard slumped to ground knocked out cold by the blow.

"That's one hell of a punch your packing Miguel" José said as he scanned for signs that anyone was watching.

"Yeah the last dumbass unblooded Yautja unfortunate enough to try and test me said that too" Miguel said chuckling at the past memory as he opened the gate for Benelli to enter. "Anyway help me get this guy somewhere he won't cause us any grief for awhile".

Together the three of them shoved the unconscious guard into a groundskeeper's shed and locked it before heading back onto the main campus.

"Alright I think we should split up and start looking for her, you guys should probably stick together and just look around, I think I'm going to go to the front desk and ask if they have any information on her" Miguel said as he began to head up the main path.

José and Benelli nodded to show that they understood and began to head off in a different direction.

"I don't know how much more of this I can take" Asumi Fujimori thought as she gazed absentmindedly over the heads of other students at her teacher. She was bored almost beyond all rational thought and having to sit another lecture on traditional etiquette wasn't helping her mood much. No bad bloods had surfaced in nearly a month and the lack of any action was starting to grate on her nerves and patience. "At least life amongst the Yautja for a time was exhilarating".

She had tried and for the most part succeeded in blending back into her life on earth even to the point of becoming somewhat of an idol that was looked up to by the rest of her peers. Still, while she was undercover she always had to lie about her deepest nature and secret life. She could still not forget how her heart sang gleefully in exhilaration along with the profound sense of accomplishment she experienced as she had slain the Yautja criminals who hunted innocent people of both her world and others.

"Even if another bad blood doesn't show up for awhile I still wish something exciting would happen soon" she though shifting her gaze over to look out the window. She froze suddenly as movement caught her eye.

Three foreign looking men were quickly carrying away the school's daytime security guard. Warning flags went up in her mind as the instinct formed from the months of Yautja physical and psychological training along with the Kiande Amedha Chiva began to flare up quickly.

Amidst a rain of apologies Asumi rose quickly from her seat, requested to be excused and was granted her request. The moment she was out of the classroom Asumi sprinted down hallway towards the room of the kendo club. Halting as she reached it Asumi quickly looked around to make sure no one was watching and slid the door open.

Glancing around she moved quickly towards a locker tucked away unnoticed in a corner and withdrew her prized Yautja forged Katana.

"Please let no one else be hurt" she thought as she ran down a stairwell and exited outside through a service door.

"Man, talk about a ritzy place" Miguel thought looking around as he walked up to the reception desk. As he stopped in front the desk a stern and stuck up looking woman glanced up at him and began to speak to him in Japanese that was made understandable to Miguel through his ear translator.

"Can I help you?" the woman asked her eyes narrowing in suspicion.

"Yes" Miguel replied as he locked gazed with the woman from behind his sunglasses. "I'm a little confused about what this place is and I'm also looking for Asumi Fujimori"

"Are you related to her in some way?" the woman asked skeptically as she looked him up and down.

"We're family, well in a matter of speaking I suppose" Miguel replied after all it was true that they were in the same fight together, still he could sense that this conversation was not going to go anywhere helpful.

"This place is an academy where we teach young girls to become dignified ladies" the woman replied her tone one of thinly veiled contempt for him. "On top of that Asumi Fujimori is one of our model students, a truly dignified, morally correct young lady and not one whom I believe would associate with some delinquent like you" She scoffed and went back at what she was doing.

"Model lady huh? Shit, and here I thought I knew people who lived secret double lives" Miguel thought as he turned and headed back outside. "Looks like I'm just going to have to find her the old fashioned way" Miguel though as he activated his cloak in a secluded area and began to look around.

"All right we aren't getting anywhere with this" Benelli said as he and José entered an empty garden.

"I hear that, still, I don't think we can stop looking just yet" José replied in a low ton of voice. Suddenly a flash of movement caught his eye and José turned to see a young girl clad in the school's uniform and wielding a katana appeared out of the manicured bushes. It was immediately evident who she was. "Well I guess that's one way to solve our issue".

"Who are you?" Asumi said forcefully as she stepped into a defensive stance. She didn't draw her sword but she wanted the two of them to know that she meant business.

One of the men answered her in English but her own grasp of the language was so poor that she had no idea what he was saying. As one of the two shifted his stance uneasily Asumi glimpsed the handle of a firearm and her instincts immediately took over. Moving with speed gained from endless training she drew her katana and positioned herself in a defensive stance as one of her opponents also drew a sword with lightning speed.

"If you ladies would stop your pointless bickering we have work that needs to be done" a voice called out.

Looking around to see who had spoken, Asumi gasped in surprised as the third man she had spotted emerged out from cloaking technology that was all too familiar.

"Asumi Fujimori" Miguel said as if starting a grand speech. "The arbitrators and I have need of your assistance in our fight against the bad bloods, are you willing to answer our call?"

Asumi's eyes lit up with excitement and Miguel could already tell without any words that she was already onboard with their mission.

"Good, then let's go quickly, we've got a bunch more stops to make before we head out for real" Miguel said as the four of them began to walk out of the school and towards the mountains.

The rest of the trip went fairly routinely with a stop in target areas from New Zealand to Mexico, introductions would follow along with an almost immediate agreement under the own cultures bond of honor to join in the struggle. With each new agent that signed on to fight with him, Miguel began to look forward to his next task of bringing down Ga'Knash's cell leader.

"Alright, so we've got almost a dozen other people crammed into this ship now, so where do we go from here?" José asked as he and Miguel lounged in the cockpit.

"We've got one more pickup to make outside Durban in South Africa then we can go after the pricks" Miguel responded as he began to bring the ship back into orbit once again.

"Well the sooner that this is over the better" José said as he stroked his beard and thought about the future. "So how are we going to approach this one?"

"I think I'm going to go this one alone to this contact, apparently this guy is somewhat suspicious of groups just showing up on his doorstep. Just head out and enjoy the town for a few hours I should be back by then" Miguel replied as he landed the ship on the deserted outskirts of the city.

"Well, I guess this would be the place, feels kind of like my old stomping ground" Miguel thought moving quietly through the rundown neighborhood. Looking around he spotted the aging house that he was looking for and deactivated his cloak. Glancing around Miguel stepped up and knocked on the door.

"Who is it?" a man's voice asked from behind the door.

"Is this Ntshingwayo?" Miguel asked quietly. "I need to speak to you about something".

The door opened and fairly large and battle scarred man stood framed in the door looking over Miguel in a way that seemed as though he was considering him as a possible threat.

"What do you want? I didn't do anything" Ntshingwayo said assessing Miguel before looking around to make sure that no one else was with him.

"I never said you did, my name is Young Fury and I need your assistance with something very monumental" Miguel said pulling down his tank top at the neckline to reveal the mark that showed he was with the arbitrators.

Upon seeing the mark Ntshingwayo's eyes widened in recognition and he gestured for Miguel to come inside. Accepting the invitation Miguel moved up the steps and entered the house.

"So, you are the great Young Fury, it appears that the "young" part of your name was not exaggerated" Ntshingwayo said as he beckoned Miguel into a well furnished living area.

"You've heard of me? None of the others seemed to think that I was special" Miguel asked somewhat disconcerted.

"Since this program of theirs was only expanded fairly recently I guess they haven't spent much time listening to the stories of their Yautja mentors" Ntshingwayo said with shrug. "I on the other hand was recruited only a couple of months after you were so apart from yourself I am the most senior of the surviving agents, on top of that I was recruited by the same Yautja arbitrator who recruited you".

"You were recruited by Gro'Kesh?" Miguel asked somewhat surprised.

"Indeed he told me to expect a visit from you eventually. He also regaled me with tales of your exploits during my training and chiva, he was quite proud of you and what you have accomplished in your fight against the bad bloods" Ntshingwayo responded.

Miguel felt a wave of appreciation for his mentor and friend wash over him as his mind shifted back to the situation at hand.

"Well, I don't know how else to say this, but we're about to be in for the fight of our lives and I need all the help I can get dealing with a massive bad blood organization. Do you want in?" Miguel said waiting for a response.

"You didn't even need to ask, after all as fellow agents we should look after each other when the need comes, just let me collect my things" Ntshingwayo replied without a moment's hesitation.

Moving to the far corner in his living area Ntshingwayo kneeled down and opened a trap door hidden under an unremarkable looking rug. Miguel stood and watched as Ntshingwayo bent down and retrieved an exquisitely crafted Iklwa spear and Ishlangu shield which, to Miguel's surprise, was faced with the hide of a Kiande Amedha.

"Nice weapons you got there" Miguel complemented.

"I quite like them" Ntshingwayo said passing his spear over so that Miguel could examine it closely. "The spear was forged from Yautja steel by their best metal smiths, the spine and face of the shield were also constructed from the strong and light Yautja metal but I found that it had difficulty standing up to the acid of the Kiande Amedha on my chiva so I took an extra step and put the Kiande Amedha hide over the steel, now it will repel any Yautja weapon short of a plasma-caster".

"So you dragged an entire Kiande Amedha corpse back with you?" Miguel asked amused. "You must have some huge balls man".

"My observers said something similar" Ntshingwayo replied grinning.

Ntshingwayo's weapons fit the pattern for the other agents. Instead of training the agents on Yautja weapons it appeared as though the arbitrators had just upgraded the melee weapons used normally by each agent and then trained them on how to spot and track bad bloods using their own senses and Yautja technology. Asumi's katana, the taiaha of Rangi, the Maori warrior he'd picked up in Rotorua, and the weapons of the other agents all fit into this dynamic. He seemed to be the only exception to this rule. It had made sense when Miguel had thought about it more. After all it both saved training time and didn't automatically reveal an agent to their bad blood quarry.

"Alright, if your onboard let's get moving, we've got bad bloods to hunt" Miguel said as the two of them left the house and moved with a purpose towards Miguel's ship. As they moved out into the night Miguel could feel the elation in chest, finally he could put his plans into motion and crush this bad blood organization once and for all. He only hoped that Gro'Kesh, Zo'Chi, and his mate Si'Mara were having as much success.


	11. Gathering the Clans

**Gathering the Clans**

"Seriously, don't the ancients have better things to do with their time than constantly hassle me?" Si'Mara thought to herself irritated as she stood before the council of the ancients for the second time in almost two weeks. She had recently been summoned to go before the council and while Gro'Kesh had assured her that he didn't believe that the ancients were onto their plan he had also warned her that she should be prepared for anything.

As she shifted around again a call was put out for the council to come to order. Looking up at the central podium she was surprised and disgusted to see Sha'Rol, the annoying bane of both her and her mate's existence take center stage and began to address the room.

"In lieu of the High ancient Zo'Chi being away from his official duties on an extended hunting trip, I, Sha'Rol will be heading this official inquiry"

Si'Mara groaned inwardly as Sha'Rol looked down from the podium to address her.

"Si'Mara, daughter of Zi'Gir and the Black Dawn clan, you have been called before this council so that we may inquire as to whether or not you have any knowledge concerning the present whereabouts of the dishonorable coward and your former mate Young Fury"

Si'Mara's hatred flared up inside her like a wild fire but thinking of how her mate was currently relying on her she steeled herself to show no reaction as she returned Sha'Rol's piercing gaze.

"I have no idea where my former mate is hiding, I have already denounced him in front of this council and wish to have nothing more to do with him short of seeing him punished for his traitorous actions" Si'Mara lied as she expertly fought to keep herself from charging at Sha'Rol and tearing his heart out.

"Indeed, and yet you still carry the glaive that he gave to you" Sha'Rol responded obviously probing for a weakness.

Si'Mara refused to show any however as she began to give her counter argument. "It is simply the best weapon that I have, so unless you are going to say that me being wise in the pragmatic choice of my weapons is a crime I don't see how retaining it is an issue".

"No, it is not a crime" Sha'Rol responded still determined to put pressure on her. "Still, both most of this council as well as myself are not entirely convinced that you have severed all links with your former mate".

"I have an interest in seeing him brought to face sentencing for his crimes and nothing else, so unless you are going to question both my honor and the honor of the Black Dawn clan there is nothing more to say on this matter" Si'Mara said her voice and body standing firm.

Si'Mara felt a twinge of satisfaction as she watched Sha'Rol's shoulders slump in disappointment as he seemed to be convinced that either she was telling the truth or that he could pressure her no further without coming off as affronting her honor in front of the council, a serious violation of protocol.

"Very well then" Sha'Rol said barely concealing his frustration. "In light of your statement you are free to go however this council would do well in reminding you of the severe repercussions that would occur should you attempt to contact him again"

"Of that I am well aware, council" Si'Mara replied giving them a gesture of respect before turning to leave the council chambers her fury and hatred of Sha'Rol still burning deep inside her chest as she exited the temple.

"You did very well in there today, I see that Young Fury's trust in your ability was not misplaced" a voice said as she turned off the main walkway. Si'Mara looked back and was not surprised to see Gro'Kesh fall in behind her.

"Still if I have to go up before that asshole Sha'Rol again to denounce my mate I'm going to rip his head off" Si'Mara said clenching her fists in anger.

"Fortunately you won't have to" Gro'Kesh replied looking for a tail as he gestured for Si'Mara to follow him. "Everything with Arbitrators on the home world has been set up so I have requested a leave from my normal duties to go "hunting" and I have asked that you accompany me".

"So does that mean we are going to where my mate is?" Si'Mara asked her excitement rising.

"No, not yet, we will meet up with him later but for now we are going to head out to a system that is remote even by the standards of the most transient clans to meet Zo'Chi". Gro'Kesh replied as he turned towards the docking bay that housed his ship with Si'Mara following closely him.

"So Zo'Chi has been successful in gathering support?" Si'Mara asked.

"According his last encrypted message he has succeeded in gather most of the clans whom he trusts, however a couple of them have yet to appear" Gro'Kesh replied quietly as the two began to head into the ship.

"That is some good news" Si'Mara said glancing around the docking bay one last time just to make sure they weren't being tailed by any of Sha'Rol's minions.

"Don't worry about anyone following us I have already made sure that they are chasing a false lead so they won't be aware of our departure and I have disabled the homing beacon they placed on my ship to boot" Gro'Kesh responded as he raised the ramp.

"So you figured out everything they could do already" Si'Mara asked in admiration.

"I have been an arbitrator for a good number of years young one, I have done surveillance work so many times that I know virtually all the tricks of that particular venture" Gro'Kesh said taking his seat in the cockpit before firing up the engines. "I taught Young fury a great deal about it as well"

"I never thought to ask him about it, you should teach me when you have the time." Si'Mara responded as the ship's console blinked with an indication that the ship was cleared to leave.

"I think that job is best left to him, after all, he seems to be the one you most respect" Gro'Kesh replied playfully as he punched the throttle.

With blistering speed Gro'Kesh's ship roared out of the hangar and into the sky. A few minutes later both Si'Mara and Gro'Kesh were speeding though space towards the rendezvous where the fleet would be waiting for them.

"So where is the fleet gathering?" Si'Mara asked curiously.

"In the Ro'Ac system" Gro'Kesh responded in a matter a fact tone.

"The Ro'Ac system?" Si'Mara said taken aback. "Only the most transient Yautja clans head out there and even then they don't go there often".

"I am aware of that, however it is only a couple of weeks distance beyond Earth so it would take Young Fury less time to get there yet would still be isolated enough so that a large gathering of Yautja clans would go unnoticed" Gro'Kesh growled.

"I suppose that make sense" Si'Mara said in agreement.

"Oh yes, there is another thing that I should mention" Gro'Kesh said as he engaged the autopilot and looked over at Si'Mara.

"What is that?" Si'Mara asked returning his gaze.

"Your father Zi'Gir and the Black Dawn clan have pledged their support to this offensive and will be taking part in the fight"

"My father has decided to take part!" Si'Mara gasped in surprised. "I never thought that he would take part in something that could be considered treason".

"I do not know his reasons for joining this fight. All I know is that Zo'Chi says that his was one of the first clans to arrive." Gro'Kesh said checking to ensure that the course was laid in correctly. "You will have to ask him about his decision when we arrive".

"Believe me I will definitely find out what he is thinking when we get there" Si'Mara replied as she headed out of the cockpit and over the guest quarters that Gro'Kesh had prepped before coming to find her.

Even with the customized upgrades to the engines in Gro'Kesh's ship it took nearly a month before they finally made it out to the rendezvous system. As they approached Si'Mara let out a low whistle of amazement. Ten full sized clan ships were assembled above the small and barren planet that comprised the final and smallest one in the system.

"Quite an impressive sight, especially considering that it is still incomplete" Gro'Kesh said taking in the sight of the first Yautja fleet to have ever been assembled in preparation for war.

"No shit, and to think they did it for Zo'Chi at the word of my mate" Si'Mara said her pride rising again.

"That was not the only reason, truth be told, many of the clans and clan leaders loyal to Zo'Chi are highly transient and have long shunned the home world on account of their own suspicions about bad blood activities" Gro'Kesh said directing his ship in preparation for dock with one of the large clan ships.

"Well whatever their reasons they're here nonetheless" Si'Mara replied as the ship entered the docking bay and the engines fell silent.

Moving with a purpose both Si'Mara and Gro'Kesh headed down the ramp and onto the clan ship. The pair hadn't gone far however when they were intercepted by a small group of young blood Yautja. As the group approached the apparent leader of the bunch began to speak.

"Arbitrator Gro'Kesh and clan daughter Si'Mara, the high ancient Zo'Chi and the clan elders wish to meet with you and have instructed that you come immediately upon your arrival"

"Then that is precisely where we shall go" Gro'Kesh replied giving a gesture of respect to the surprised young bloods before beckoning for Si'Mara to follow him.

"What do you think they want to ask about?" Si'Mara asked.

"We're about to find out" Gro'Kesh replied as they headed up the halls and arrived outside the ship's senior meeting room.

As the door hissed open Si'Mara was surprised to see that Zo'Chi was waiting for them along with all ten of the clan leaders including her father Zi'Gir. Moving quickly Si'Mara and Gro'Kesh took their seats while Zo'Chi made sure that the door was secure before turning to address the assembled clan leaders.

"Now, with the assistance of the arbitrators Gro'Kesh and Si'Mara I will now explain in detail why I have called these specific clans out to this remote system in secret" Zo'Chi said his voice exuding great authority.

"Indeed, why this meeting of clans has been kept secret from the council has been a question on all our minds" one of the elders said speaking up for the first time.

"Recently one of our best and most reliable agents has confirmed the existence of a large and well organized group of bad bloods, one that presents a clear risk to foundations of our society" Zo'Chi said as a visible ripple of concern passed across the unmasked faces of the elders.

"Both myself and the arbitrators trust this agent as he has confirmed many of the suspicions that the arbitrators and the clan leaders I have called on share" Zo'Chi continued ratcheting up the sense of urgency. "As to how we will handle this situation I will let Gro'Kesh and Si'Mara describe the difficult situation that is taking place on the home world".

Si'Mara and Gro'Kesh rose from their seats and took center stage in order best to relay their information to the assembled leaders.

"I wish I had good news from the home world but the situation with the council is bleak, several council members are under the thumb of Sha'Rol whom both I and my agent have come to suspect is a mole for this organization" Gro'Kesh said as a look of rage crossed many of the assembled faces.

"That dishonorable buffoon, I will take his head for a trophy!" One of the clan leaders roared in rage to growls of approval from many of the others.

"Indeed you just might have that honor when this is over" Si'Mara said speaking up for the first time.

Taking center stage from Gro'Kesh Si'Mara coolly faced down her father and the assembled clan leaders as she began to speak.

"We have come up with plan which should allow us to control the situation on the home world while we take the fight to the bad bloods, utilizing the arbitrators still on the home world we will detain Sha'Rol and those sympathetic to him should they attempt to launch a coup to overthrow the council and when my mate arrives with the coordinates to the bad blood home base we will move in to commence our attack"

"How do you know that your mate will arrive with the crucial information" one of the elders asked.

"I believe in my agent" Gro'Kesh said taking back the spotlight. "Throughout all the time that he has been fighting for us he has yet to fail in his duty"

"Very well, I believe that the situation has been adequately explained for the time being, if anyone wants out of this plan please speak up now" Zo'Chi said casting his gaze over the clan leaders and waiting for their response.

Zo'Chi did not have to wait long, within moments ten simultaneous roars told him that they were all ready to bring their clans into the fight for glory and eternal honor. "Very well then, this meeting is over".

As the clan leaders began to file out of the door Si'Mara hung back and waited for her father. As he approached the door he beckoned to her.

"It is good to see you again daughter" Zi'Gir said as Si'Mara fell into step beside him.

"I have missed you as well father, I am very glad that you trust in my mate enough to follow his information all the way through this" Si'Mara replied carefully.

"I have rarely met him, it is your strong judgment and belief in him that I trust enough to follow all the way to war" Zi'Gir said as they moved towards the hangar to catch a ship back to the main ship of the Black Dawn clan. "Also it seems that the fate of all of us now rests on his shoulders".


End file.
